


Icy Fairy

by AUehara



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Female Gray, Genderbending, Idol Gray, M/M, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Song fic, kpop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-24 06:22:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 68,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8360761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AUehara/pseuds/AUehara
Summary: What is worse than having an unrequited love for a dense flame-head, be the unrequited love of a lion celestial spirit, the younger sibling figure of a protective ice-bastard, a teen and adult male AND female idol and be resurrected as a memory-less super powerful young woman? Possibly be all that and have to deal with an immortal dark mage on top of it all.





	1. Trap

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, Readers!
> 
> This story was originally posted on fanfiction.net and now I got to know this site, so I'm posting it here as well.
> 
> Updates will come weekly for the time being or as often as I can progress with the story... Beware, I'm often plagued with writer's block... the shame...
> 
> Anyways! There will be a lot of K-pop references and other songs as well. Each chapter is accompained by a song. 
> 
> For now, that is all. Any coments are appreciated and questions will always be answered!
> 
> Enjoy!

**01 – Trap _by Henry (feat. Taemin & Kyuhyun)_**

 

_Ice blocks were falling everywhere. The ice made floor of the cave was beyond walkable, cracked and moving at every new wave of energy shot from the crater created by the demon. Happy watched helpless from the now closed entrance of the cave as Natsu struggled to get to his feet, fortunately not bothered by his motion sickness. Not too far from the dragon slayer was Gray, whose legs were trapped in the ice blocks from the broken floor and most likely useless at the moment as well. At some more distance from them, was Lucy, who just fell again, having lost her footing._

_Then he yelled._

_“Gray! Lucy!”_

_At the same time, a piece of ice fell from the cave ceiling right onto Lucy and a beam shot from the crater straight at Gray._

_On impulse and by logic of who’s closer, Natsu shot at Gray and grabbed him by the waist, yanking the ice mage from the ice floor just in time before the beam hit any of them. Recovering from the sudden action, Gray created an ice dome covering the crater and turned to where their female companion was._

_“Lucy!” Natsu turned to where the blonde was last seen beneath the ice chunks but turned back to the ice mage._

_“But your legs!”_

_“Just go! I’ll be fine!” Gray pushed his friend and immediately the dragon slayer bolted to help Lucy. Happy came flying then and was shocked to see the state his legs were in. Smashed was the only way he could describe it, smashed and bent in too many places from mid-tight and lower._

_“Gray!”_

_“Happy!” the raven haired looked up to the cat, emergency overflowing in both pairs of eyes. Happy meant to help him up, but Gray interrupted him. “Go see how Lucy is and help her and Natsu out!”_

_“But-!”_

_“Go, Happy! I’m the only one who can finish this thing anyway!”_

_Nodding hesitantly, Happy flew to the pair. Natsu had just finished digging Lucy out and had the girl cradled in his arms._

_“How is Lucy?” the cat asked taking a look at her._

_“She’s alive” he answered. In his arms, Lucy was trying to hold back tears and screams of pain, holding the left shoulder tightly, but still alive enough and pretty much awake. “Possibly only the shoulder out of place of major injury.”_

_“Good. Gray said to get out. He’s gonna try to do something about the demon.”_

_“But in the condition he is-!”_

_“I’m good, flame head!” the ice mage appeared beside the group and did a quick scan over Lucy. At least she was still in one piece, good. “You and Happy take Lucy out of here. The cave is about to crash completely.”_

_“And how do you want us to get out?! If you haven’t noticed, there is no way out!” Natsu argued only to have Gray answer with a smirk._

_“And when has that ever stopped us?” as soon as he said that, he took a step back and canon blasted the nearest wall, efficiently making a tunnel to the outside world where the sky was still light. “Go!”_

_Happy needn’t be told twice, he flew in a straight line outside. Natsu made sure his hold on Lucy wouldn’t damage her more and took a step forward, stopping just as he realized something. “Aren’t you coming?”_

_“I’ll be out soon enough. Let me just finish this shit first” the ice mage turned away and faced the crater._

_“Do us a favor and don’t die, got it, frostbite!”_

_“Yeah, yeah. Leave it to me.”_

_Natsu then rushed through the crumbling tunnel and caught up with Happy. After they got a safe distance from danger, they managed to make Lucy open her eyes and respond to them, just to make sure she was still there. Then, the cave they were in not two minutes before crumbled completely and a giant spear of ice rose from the cold floor, on its tip was the form of the demon they were fighting. A second later and the monster broke into tiny pieces before falling and be carried away by the wind._

_A moment of realization and they ran to the now calm plain, personal pain put aside and eyes focused looking out for their missing friend._

_A faint breeze blew through them and brought with it a scent very much familiar for the dragon slayer, but in a condition he didn’t like at all, the scent of the first snow fall deeply mixed with blood. Natsu doubled his speed and left Lucy and Happy to catch up by themselves. Arriving at a certain point, he started digging. Just as the other two arrived he found what he was looking for. Or part of it._

_Lucy’s good hand left her shoulder to go to her mouth. Happy fell lightly to the floor, tears streaming down his blue fur. And Natsu only stared wide eyed, hands shaking._

_In the shallow hole was a pair of pale and strong legs that went from feet to mid tights. The combat boots and ripped pants’ legs were covered in blood, quick cooling blood that spread out painting the ice and snow around deep crimson. And nothing else._

_“No…” a sob escaped the blonde before she fell to her knees and started crying out loud, Happy joining her._

_“You bastard!” Natsu sobbed and punched the bloody ice. “I told you not to die! Are you that stupid?! Can’t you even do that?!”_

_“Who the hell are you calling stupid, retarded ash brains!”_

_At once, the three wailing friends looked up, stunned by the angry familiar voice._

_In front of them, stood Gray, shirtless, hair half covered in snow and blood running down from many shallow wounds all over his body. The pants were ripped little higher than the knees, and the rest of his legs were transparent with a bluish tint._

_“Gray! You’re alive!” Lucy screamed with tears still falling down her cheeks._

_“Of course I am alive! You think that was enough to kill me?” Gray asked, raising an eyebrow at her._

_“But your legs!” Happy yelled flying over said limbs pointing at them, fur bristled._

_“Ah, that? They were useless after Natsu pulled me out of the ice. And since we had to finish this problem, I got rid of them. This was a trick Ur used when she saved me. Pretty neat, huh!” he said with a grin, like the current situation was the most common thing in the world._

_Then Natsu punched him on the face. “YOU BASTARD!” And proceed to hug the ice mage before he fell, pulling him the closest possible to his chest, burring his face on the dark hair. “Never scare me like that again.”_

Small sharp eyes blinked quickly and repeatedly. Carla looked around and got her bearings. She was in the hall of Fairy Tail guild, sitting on the table in front of Wendy, who was talking to Erza animatedly. The other mages were scattered around talking, drinking and being loud like usual.

With a sigh, the queencat dropped her gaze to her lap. A vision, most likely, she thought, and a very gory one at that. At least no one died on it, she reasoned.

Deciding not to worry about it, the cat turned to her best friend and tried to catch up to their talk. But not a minute later, she felt rather than saw, many members stop what they were doing, frown and continue with their activities. Following their example, she did the same, but still noted which mages had that reaction, they were Wendy, Erza, Kana, Juvia, Gajeel, Master, the Raijinshu and Laxus.

Five days earlier

Gray groaned waking up, feeling his back and neck sore like after another Grand Magic Games, then he remembered it was just another hangover, as usual. He rubbed his eyes and tried to get up, being stopped by something holding his middle. After another try, he gave up and eyed what has keeping him and stared.

In front of his eyes was skin, lightly tanned and smooth skin covering hard packs of muscles. Feeling how warm it was, he knew instantly who it was, and the possessive yet gentle way the arm draped over him gave it away as well.

“Loke, wake up already. You are stinking of alcohol” Gray murmured stretching as much as he could, somehow resembling a cat, much for the irony of the situation.

In response, the other male grumbled and tightened his hold on the young man and buried his face on the dark locks, finding it too comfortable having a cold body next to him at this late summer time to wake up. Gray sighed at the other’s attitude.

Loke, who was enjoying his sleep quite nicely, suddenly flew out of bed hugging his chest, where there was a bright red spot from the sudden blow of freezing air. “Gray!”

“Good morning to you too, Loke. And good to see you have at least your pants on” the dark-haired male greeted his friend and sat up, stretching his arms over his head.

The spirit stared at the young man in slight disbelief. “How come you are that energetic this morning if you drank that much last night?”

“To the point I actually let you sleep in my bed with me?” he shrugged and got up, walking towards his bathroom completely nude, not that he noticed nor that he cared. It wasn’t like Loke hadn’t seen him naked before anyways. “After a while you get used to it, you know.”

“That is quite the depressing thought, you know?” the blonde said while walking to the living room, looking for his lost shirt.

“Like I’m not a depressing person” Gray rolled his eyes. Before he closed the bathroom door, he turned back to the spirit. “You’re going back to the Spirit World?”

“Yeah. Although I’m still good, and I bet my hangover is better than yours, I rather be prepared if anything was to happen to Lucy and she needs me. But, Gray… Are you going to be okay?” Loke asked worriedly.

The ice mage looked at his best friend in the eyes and gave him a constrained smile. “Not really, but I’ll manage. I always do. Go rest. And thanks for the company last night.”

“You know you can always count on me for anything. See you later” Loke gave him a small but sincere smile and vanished to the Spirit World.

Gray turned, closed the door and proceeded with his daily routine, all the while ignoring the pounding in his head. During his cold morning shower, he thought back to the events that led to his earlier predicament.

The night before, he had a date with Natsu, one of those rare and real dates they had lately. They were supposed to meet by the dry riverside at nine in the night. The ice mage arrived ten minutes earlier and lay on the grass, passing his time stargazing and creating imaginary drawings with the constellations, trying to associate the stars’ positions to the celestial spirits and how much they didn’t resemble one another, at all.

About an hour later, Gray decided to look for the fire dragon slayer and give him a little lesson about punctuality. He went to the other’s house first and found him there alright, and in a situation he had imagined as an option before. The house was unusually cleaned. Happy was nowhere to be found. And Natsu was in bed with Lucy, with all the lights out and very concentrated on their current activities.

Gray bit down his lip to hold back any other external reaction and watched the couple for ten seconds before turning his back and heading back home. When he arrived at the stony way to the front door of his house – a pretty nice three store building, large enough to occupy two thirds of Fairy Tail’s guild area with the best playground/park like backyard at the outskirts of Magnolia – he picked a small sphere-like silver device he always kept with him and pushed a little button on it.

Five minutes later, he had his living room table prepared with three bottles of different liquors, two clean scotch glasses and two shot glasses ready and filled with an alcoholic drink, this time’s choice being one of his favorite vodkas he only drank with either Lyon or Loke. The lion spirit arrived to that scene and raised an eyebrow to his friend’s position half sitting half lying on the floor by the couch’s feet.

“Sorry for calling you on such short notice and for something as stupid as a drink’s night to cover another of my depression fits, but would you terribly mind keeping me company?” Gray had asked and Loke accepted.

They drank the shots of vodka, a bottle of whiskey and a glass each of the other two bottles. In the middle of the drinking, clothes were lost and the males stumbled to the bed. No real intimate contact made at all, constrained by sheer self-control from both parties.

Yes, that was pretty much it. What a ridiculous situation, Gray thought.

Gray has been in love with Natsu for way too long now and recently (in their perspective) Natsu decided he wanted someone else but kept Gray around, in his ignorance keeping the ice mage tied to him. Then when it became too much for Gray to take it quietly, he’d call either Loke or Lyon or both for a night of drinking until he was too numb to feel his heartache.

After getting dressed and ready for the day, Gray first stopped by the back of his house, the part of the building he had reserved to make an orphanage for all kind of children and teens until they were eighteen and if they chose to stay around they could work there as housekeepers and helpers and teachers for the young kids. That was one of the projects he had with Kana and Erza and was approved by Master Makarov, though the three of them took care of it by themselves with the employees of what has been dubbed The Icy-Steel-Card House.

On his way, the young man greeted the people going on about their routines until he came out to the backyard. There a group of small children was running around playing happily. Standing watch over them were two middle-aged ladies. He walked to them calmly.

“It always amazes me how they can be so energetic and cheerful so early in the morning” he said and greeted the pair, who chuckled at him.

“Gray-kun, it is ten in the morning” one of them replied laughing.

“Exactly! It’s too early still.”

They chatted for a couple minutes and then the ice mage said his good-byes and headed for the guild.

As usual, the Fairy Tail hall was blusterous with laughs and cheers for whatever reason those crazy mages could find. He easily spotted Wendy sitting with Kana, Carla and Happy on a table close to the bar. Natsu and Lucy were sitting a little away from the other four at the same table, giving off waves of cheesy love, not that Natsu himself understood the concept. Gray ignored the couple and went to the girls and cats, sitting beside Wendy and putting an arm over her slim shoulders.

“Morning. Wendy, the ladies at the House asked when you are coming next. They said the kids miss your visits.”

“Good morning, Gray-san. I will try to stop by one of these days” the young dragon slayer said smiling. Happy started to talk to them then and from time to time Lucy commented something or another.

It was some minutes later that Master Makarov came to the hall from his office and walked to their table. Clearing his throat, he addressed them.

“Gray, you have a new mission” the old man said calmly and the young man looked at him and smiled. A nominated mission now would probably mean a challenging quest, which would request a lot of his attention, which would take his mind away from Natsu and Lucy for as long as the mission took.

“Well, what is it about? I could use a hard mission at the moment.”

“Well then, here are all the details about it”, Makarov handled him a thin file, which the ice mage started to read right away still listening to the master, “but to sum it up, the request came from the Northern Country and is asking for a mage capable of defeating a demon that has been messing with the weather over there. And they specifically requested an ice mage.”

“I’ll go right after lunch then” Gray nodded and Master nodded back, accepting the younger’s conditions.

The little man walked away and the whole table approached Gray while he was still going over the request’s details. When Lucy looked, her eyes found a very nice and interesting number written before the word ‘Reward’ followed by some other things. She nudged Natsu on the ribs and pointed that to him, both developing suspicious glints in their eyes.

Some hours later, after lunch and Gray leaving a message at home, he stood dumbfound at the train station staring at a fire dragon slayer and a celestial spirit mage, both with a traveling bag each, waving at him. Happy flew over to him before any mage said anything and floated in front of him.

“I tried to stop them, but Lucy was really insistent” the blue cat whispered. The ice mage sighed and turned back to staring at the other two humans.

“If you are hoping to get any part of the monetary reward by going, don’t even bother. Unless you are anyhow useful, you are coming along for free” he deadpanned and turned to the right train stop.

“Like that is the only reason” Natsu rolled his eyes and followed. “Jii-chan said they requested a powerful mage to defeat a demon. So it’s only natural I have to go.”

“Yeah, right, like you will be any help here. And what is your excuse, Lucy?” Gray asked not bothering to face her.

The blonde huffed before replying. “Ever since the Grand Magic Games we haven’t gone in a mission together as a team. I think this is the perfect opportunity” she said in a know-it-all manner.

“And that is why you didn’t mention it to me or Wendy before nor waited for Erza, right? Whatever you say, don’t get in the way” the ice mage finished and entered the train with Happy flying by him, leaving Lucy to deal with a motion sick Natsu behind.

During the three-day ride towards the North, Gray could only ask himself what he had done to deserve this. He woke up in a bad mood, changed it after talking to the caretakers of his house and now, when he thought he would have a rest from the ‘unofficial’ couple, they just had to tag along uninvited. Really, just great. At the very least, he got the satisfaction of seeing Natsu miserable from his motion sickness and a pissed off Lucy because of the dragon slayer’s attitude.

They arrived at the station in a small town and after asking for some directions, the team proceed into the endless plains of snow. Natsu had a large coat over his usual attire and Lucy had probably four layers of winter clothes on her. Happy was gladly snuggled into Natsu’s coat collar enjoying the natural warmth the dragon slayer gave off. Within two hours they arrived at the first village of the Region of Kohotek, found an inn, settled their bags and went for a little information hunting, or rather, Gray and Happy went while Lucy and Natsu stayed at the inn, the girl stating she needed to warm up and the pink haired guy more than happy to help her.

So ice mage and Exceed walked around the village and the neighboring ones and soon towards the white plains, looking for their targets.

When they asked, the villagers said they had asked for help before, but none of the other mages that came could do as much as land a hit on the demon, but fortunately nobody has died, yet.

Almost everything about the target has been found out already. It was an intelligent monster capable of human speech. It went about 10 meters high and was large, with a body that looked like icy rocks with long arms and sharp fangs. It was living in a cave made in the half kilometer thick icy floor and once inside the demon’s lair, not one type of magic used by previous mages proved useful, which turned out to be most kind of elemental and non-elemental. One could say that the whole nature has been tried on, from fire to water, earth and air, light, shadow, poison, take-overs, re-equips and spirits. Everything was tested. Except ice magic.

Records stated that the magic was useless not because it didn’t affect the demon. It wasn’t nearly as good as that. What happened was that the closer a mage got to the monster, their energy literally left their bodies and got absorbed by the creature. Their magic just wouldn’t work, not even the most basic of spells, the mages stated it was like having lost your magic completely to the point you won’t even feel it within, like you never even had it to begin with.

Therefor trying a last shot, a mage capable of powerful and experienced ice magic was requested. And so it came to the current situation.

Walking apparently aimlessly, Gray and Happy had but snow and ice and rock surrounding them on and on and on. The cat had buried himself into Gray’s coat and the mage mindfully kept his clothes on. They looked around and had yet to find anything to indicate the cave the demon resided in.

“Nah, Gray” Happy called quietly, still keeping his eyes out for anything that could pass for a cave.

“What is it, Happy?” Gray asked almost absentmindedly.

“Are you mad we tagged along?”

The ice mage took a moment to answer, which made the cat look at him. “I sincerely hoped to use this mission as a time out from those two, yes, but I don’t mind you.”

Happy beamed and returned to his task, helping his friend. “We could always just kick Lucy out of her clothes and leave her out here.”

“Nah, that would be mean, even for us” he snickered and went on searching.

A while later, they found it: an opening in the snow ground large enough for six grown men to pass comfortably. The pair smiled at each other and went into the hole. Entering just enough to see what was inside, they found the cave bare of anything. Literally. The place consisted of only ice walls, ice floor, a big hole in the middle of the floor and nothing more, it was like a big hall empty of any decoration, even the usual stalagmites and stalactites were absent. Wanting to make the most of this trip at once, Gray also tried his magic, after all, what use would he have here if his magic didn’t work either. So he did a basic ice shield form and was delighted to know that yes, ice magic did work here. Seems like the opponent being an ice demon cancelled all magic but ice natured. Well, good for him.

Satisfied, he and Happy turned and went back to the inn they were staying at, taking their time at doing so.

They arrived at the inn late in the night and expected to find both Natsu and Lucy asleep, but were surprised to meet the dragon slayer awake waiting for them in their room. After the door was closed, Happy flew to the bed unoccupied by the young man and fell asleep in two heartbeats, leaving Gray and Natsu alone in the night. The ice mage half ignored his friend and went to change clothes, aware of the other’s stare on his back.

“If you want to say something, just do it” Gray said tiredly still facing away from the other.

“It’s about that night. I’m sorry I didn’t come. Something urgent came up and I totally forgot about it at the time” Natsu replied looking away from the other mage and sounding as apologetically as he could, which, in Gray’s ears, wasn’t all that convincing, but that may be because he knows the dragon slayer too well.

Having finished changing into a simple pair of sweatpants, Gray turned to look at Natsu, face blank except for a raised eyebrow. “And you expect me to be mad at that? I already knew your burnt pea brain wouldn’t remember our date. So don’t even bother apologizing.”

Immediately, Natsu rose to the provocation and flared his fists. “What the fuck, ice block! I’m trying to apologize with all my heart and you go brushing it off like nothing!”

 _With all your heart, really?_ , Gray thought and held back spitting the words. “Like I said, Natsu, don’t even bother. Besides, don’t you have your hands full already with Lucy?”

“Tsc. You are really stupid, Gray.”

Then Natsu tackled the ice mage down and dragged him onto bed. They started kissing and soon clothes were thrown away and the males were engrossed in a heated session of sex, not once keeping their sounds low.

All the while, Happy slept like a rock beside them.

The next morning, Gray awoke to a cold bed. Not thinking about it, he went through his daily routine and found his three teammates having breakfast at the cafeteria. As expected, Natsu and Lucy were snuggling together and Happy was munching on a fresh fish delighted. He ignored the slight pang of pain that shot through his chest and joined them, telling them the plan for the day and about his and Happy’s findings the day before. He suggested the three of them stay at the inn, but the idea was shot down immediately and Gray simply didn’t have the energy to argue with them against their suicide wish.

Within some hours, then, the whole group was out on their way towards the demon’s lair. Gray with Happy nestled in his coat’s furred hood was walking ahead. Natsu and Lucy were some paces behind, the girl practically needing to be dragged by the dragon slayer while she shivered under her layers of clothes. Between Lucy’s complaints and Natsu’s bickering with Gray, they arrived at the same place the ice mage and Exceed found the day before. Once again Gray told the others to stay back, but their stubbornness was too strong and they went in the cave first.

The dark haired mage sighed and followed them, preparing his magic to shoot anytime. He saw Natsu and Lucy preparing their magic as well and only waited for when they would realize their magic didn’t work in this place. It didn’t take long.

The group hadn’t taken five steps into the cave and a blizzard started. Happy and Lucy started to scream immediately and Natsu and Gray braced themselves for anything, the fire mage, only then, noticing how his flames wouldn’t come out. For a split moment, he forgot the situation and that they were about to face a demon but then the immediate danger hit him and he sprung into action.

“Get out, filthy humans! Just leave me alone!” the demon screeched, but was ignored by the mages, by Gray at least.

He charged towards the form coming out of the center on the cave, ice blades ready while he left Happy and Lucy’s safety in Natsu’s care, knowing that at least his quick reflexes and raw strength were still intact and useful to keep them alive for the time being. For a while, he successfully landed many hits on the demon, but the monster didn’t just stand there, even if his attacks didn’t hit the ice mage or any other, the cave took the damage and was starting to fall apart.

Soon the floor no longer was plan. It had cracked and started to move, like rouge pieces of icebergs about the sea in a storm. The ceiling was in no better shape, with pieces of it falling every time either Gray or the demon attacked.

In a surprising lucky strike, Happy found out he could use his aerial magic, and was flying around, dodging all potential harmful things coming his way. Lucy and Natsu, on the other hand, had long lost their bearings and balance, hardly avoiding falling into icy holes or being covered by frozen rocks.

Meanwhile, Gray made sure to keep the demon’s attention on him only. It was bad luck that Natsu suddenly landed some meters behind him when the monster was throwing another wave of ice blades, forcing the ice mage to create a shield in front of them both and pray that Lucy was down on the floor and not impaled by any of the projectiles. Unfortunately for him, the force of the impact made the ice he was standing on give in and break so suddenly Gray didn’t have time get away, thus making him fall into the crack. And just as suddenly, the ice crashed back together and not only trapped Gray in between, but smashed his legs also.

The young man felt the instant pain shot through his body from his legs and couldn’t help let out a painful roar, drawing Natsu’s and Happy’s attention.

With ice blocks falling everywhere, Happy watched helpless from the now closed entrance of the cave as Natsu struggled to get to his feet, fortunately not bothered by his motion sickness. Not too far from the dragon slayer was Gray, whose legs were trapped in the ice blocks from the broken floor and most likely useless at the moment as well. At some more distance from them, was Lucy, who just fell on the ice again, having lost her footing.

Then he yelled.

“Gray! Lucy!”

At the same time, a piece of ice fell from the cave ceiling right onto Lucy as a beam shot from the crater straight at Gray.

Acting on sheer impulse, Natsu forced his legs to work and shot himself at Lucy, managing to cover her with his body just in time before the ice hit her. The girl noticed him and he made sure she was alright, but he didn’t see a laser beam pierce Gray’s chest over his heart or the sequential ice spear hitting his head, going through it and turning his head to the scene of a safe Lucy and barely scratched Natsu taking care of each other. It was only after Happy’s desperate yell the pair turned to their other teammate.

When Gray felt the shot go through his chest, the feeling of déjà vu hit him and he remembered that one minute Urtear had given the world back, when those small dragons killed him. When the first spear went through his head, there was no pain, not physical at least, but the sight of his friends unharmed and safe gave him a contradictory sense of relief that they were safe and of great betrayal that after the last night, Natsu still gave him certain death over Lucy’s possibly grave injury. The following six stabs weren’t felt, his fading conscience was glued to his friends. When a large beam encased his whole body, he didn’t have any more conscious thought, but something in him snapped and felt like was awakened. This strange something merged itself with the demon’s body and imploded before exploding and sending a massive wave of energy at all directions.

The only thing Natsu and Lucy saw was Gray’s silhouette fading inside a large beam before a large explosion blew everyone and thing away.

Natsu came to half buried in snow. Sitting up, all he saw around him was endless plain of snow, Lucy in the same state of half-burial beside him and Happy and Loke and Virgo looking around, searching for something.

“Loke? Virgo? What are you guys doing here? Is Lucy-“

“Hime is fine, she is just unconscious” Virgo answered in her monotone voice. “Both Leo-sama and I came here using our own magic” she said and turned to dig around the snow again, not giving Natsu a second to reply.

He shrugged her weird attitude and kneeled beside Lucy.

“Hey, Lucy, wake up or you’ll die of hypothermia. Come on, wake up already!” he kindly turned her to face down, heated his hand and put it on her butt. The response was immediate. She shot up and slapped the dragon slayer.

“What the hell, Natsu! What was that for!” she shrieked, but soon got her bearings. The empty landscape sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with the cold. The frantic way Happy and Loke were looking around made her even more anxious… Wait. Loke? “Loke, what are you doing here?” she asked raising her voice and walking towards the spirit with Natsu.

The ginger haired man turned to look at the pair for a moment but soon turned back to his searching, still he answered before walking away, “We are looking for Gray.”

Those words hit the pair hard. They remembered in a sudden flow of images the last thing they saw before losing consciousness and joined the others in the search for their missing friend.

They spent many minutes shouting out for the ice mage and digging randomly around. It was Virgo’s shout that changed the mood.

“Leo-sama! I found something!”

Loke, Happy, Natsu and Lucy bolted towards the maid spirit’s voice and found her in a hole that she probably dug herself. Joining her, they quickly took notice of some parts of the ice that had red spots in it and small torn pieces of what looked like clothes, dark pieces of fabric, more precisely, at the exact color of the pants Gray was using before.

While Natsu, Lucy and Happy looked around confused, the pink-haired spirit approached her leader and extended her hand, holding on her palm a small silver sphere. “Leo-sama, this is what I found actually. It’s the bell you gave Gray-san years ago, right?”

The lion spirit froze then and there. Gray never left that sphere behind. It was one of the most curious facts about the ice mage Loke knew. No matter how much the guy stripped, he never once lost the object since the lion gave him it the year before Lucy joined Fairy Tail, when he made the promise to be Gray’s partner at the S-Class Promotion Exam. Which could only mean Gray was not around anymore.

Loke took the silver piece and a familiar sad voice echoed in his mind.

_I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough._

Gripping the sphere impossibly tight and with his face down, Loke addressed his friends, “Go home. There’s nothing else to be done here.”

Both Natsu and Lucy snapped their heads at the spirit’s words and stared at him wide-eyed. Happy just sat on the snow atop the hole’s opening staring at nothing with ears flattened to his head. Natsu narrowed his eyes dangerously suddenly and steam started to come off his body. Grabbing Loke’s collar, he raised him a little, wanting to look him face to face.

“What the fuck do you mean with that!? Are you saying we should just forget about Gray, leave him behind and head back home to Magnolia?!” Natsu shouted at the top of his lungs. “Answer me, you bastard! Have you forgotten the meaning of nakama? Have you forgotten the meaning of Fairy Tail?! Huh!”

“Have you?” Loke replied dangerously quiet before raising his face to look Natsu in the eyes, and the dragon slayer was taken aback by what he saw.

The celestial spirit was biting down his lip so strongly the skin broke and a thin trail of blood ran down his chin. Fat tears were coming down his blue eyes and his eyes just screamed ‘frustration and loss’.

“Face it, Natsu, he isn’t around anymore. If he was, you would be able to smell him. Can you?” Loke asked him coldly.

Natsu released his friend and turned to sniff the air. There was the faintest trail of Gray’s scent around them and he noted it must have been the blood in the ice from when the black haired man got himself trapped by his legs. He got out the hole and sniffed some more. He knew that even under some layers of snow, he would still be able to smell somebody’s scent. What he found sent shivers down his spine. There was nothing. He got trails from the wandering Lucy, Happy and Loke did and even Virgo’s digging, but there was nothing from Gray.

Slowly he turned back to his friends, noting Virgo wasn’t with them anymore, probably she was back at the Celestial Spirit World. Loke helped Lucy up and then turned to Natsu. The two males stared at each other before the lion spirit looked away and just disappeared. Then Lucy and Natsu looked at each other.

What could they do now?

For the next four days, the two mages still tried to search for their missing friend. That day, when they went back to the inn at nightfall, they told the people in the village what had transpired and everyone agreed to help in appreciation for their work at getting rid of the demon. Still, they didn’t find anything at all. Loke refused all calls and whenever Lucy tried, one of the other Elliptical Zodiac Spirits would appear, saddened and only to deliver the message that “Leo-sama doesn’t want to talk. If he is needed to fight, he’ll know” and disappear.

At the end of the fourth day, the villagers told the mages to go back home. No one could survive any longer in the snow but they would continue to search some more and if they found anything, Fairy Tail would be the first to know. Very reluctantly, they agreed. The reward was practically shoved onto their hands, but they agreed it would go entirely to the guild, after all, they did nothing there, it wouldn’t be fair on Gray if they took what was rightfully his for themselves.

The trip back to Magnolia was a very silent one, except for Natsu’s gurgling. When they arrived home, the weather was awfully bright, it was a perfect day for a trip to the beach. It was all wrong. They quietly made their way from the train station to Fairy Tail and hesitated for a moment before entering the guild’s halls.

As usual, it was energetic and full of merry mages. The trio heard Mirajane’s greetings, but they didn’t have the energy to answer her. Instead, Happy floated to the table Carla was sharing with Wendy, Panther Lily, Kana and Erza, and flopped beside his fellow Exceeds. Lucy numbly walked to the same table and dropped herself on a free spot. Lastly, Natsu ignored everybody’s staring just as his partners and made his way towards Master, who was a table after the girls and cats.

Makarov eyed curiously how his three children looked dead. He was even more curious when the dragon slayer put his backpack down and took a package out of it and silently handed it to the old man.

“Natsu, Lucy, Happy, where is Gray?” Erza asked confused, looking at her three friends after a moment when she realized Gray was not going to come through the doors late. “You guys went with him at that mission, right? Where is he?”

There was a pin drop silence following her question and dread filled her and many other mages, Master among them. The little man then looked at Natsu’s face carefully and only found the young man in an automatic state. Understanding he wasn’t going to get much more from him, Makarov decided to open the package Natsu handed him. It was the full monetary reward from the mission he sent Gray to twelve days before. Dread settled in, he slowly turned to the fire mage and asked firmly, “What happened?”

Natsu didn’t answer. Lucy flinched before starting to sob. It was Happy who answered in a very small voice.

“It happened really fast. One moment we were trying to stand up and the next Lucy almost got crushed by a falling part of the cave’s ceiling if it wasn’t for Natsu covering her and Gray was trapped by his legs and a beam shot at him. Then he was gone. The only thing left of him was some drops of blood on the ice. Not even the demon’s cave was there. Gray is just gone.”

X781, December – Magnolia, Fiore

Unceremoniously, Kana dropped a barrel of beer and three mugs in front of Gray and Loke, who were sulking and reading a notebook respectively, before taking a seat at the other side of the ice mage. At the other side of the table, Laxus sat with Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen, each with a cup of their preferred drink.

“First, cheer up, Gray, or your face is going to be permanently twisted into that frown if you continue. Second, what is Loke reading?” the brunette girl said, filling the three mugs and handing one to each boy and keeping one to herself.

“First, if my face hasn’t twisted from me training in a blizzard, it won’t ever, Kana. Second, Loke insisted on reading my scribbles” Gray answered his best female friend and took a sip of the alcoholic drink. “Also, I’m sorry it didn’t happen this year either. I know how bad you want to be S-class.”

At his words, the girl smiled sadly and tapped his mug with hers. “Well, it couldn’t be helped. Not only were we against a she-demon, literally, but we also had the monster Erza and this stupid spark-head here as opponents on the way.”

The dark haired boy smiled at her and they drank, ignoring the twitching eyebrow on Laxus’ face and the snickers from his three ‘bodyguards’. “Fair enough. But I promise you, I am going to help you become S-class even if I get there first” he grinned and waited for her reaction, which came right after.

“Like a brat like you could become S-class before me!”

“We have the same age, you crazy girl!”

“Yeah, but don’t you know, us girls do grow up way before you guys do, you cold ass!”

“Like hell you do!”

“Oh, come on! Stop that already and drink up, kids!” Laxus exclaimed from across the table and wacked them both on the head, earning glares and stunk tongues from the dark haired pair and laughs from his three followers.

Before a three-way discussion started between the group of friends, Loke spoke up, putting the notebook down and taking his beer. “You should give life to these pieces soon, Gray. They are really good!”

“We told you, Gray!” Evergreen happily said pointing to the boy.

On the other hand, the ice mage looked away from them and murmured behind his mug something like ‘It’s not that good’ and ‘I would look ridiculous’ that his friends shook their heads to. Kana took the notebook then and started to read the last written pages, raising her eyebrows in the process.

“Damn, Gray, this new one is pretty awesome. Quite heavy too. Even after these three years you still fell like this?” Gray just shrugged in response to her questioning. Over him, Kana saw the frown on Loke’s face and sighed herself along with the Raijinshuu. These boys were a lost cause.

She then looked away from her sulking friend and took in the rest of the guild. Everyone was partying, celebrating Mirajane’s promotion to S-class Mage. Her siblings were extremely happy for her. Erza was picking a fight with the she-demon. Lisanna was with Natsu on stage, performing a lovely winter song together and looking all lovey-dovey, though the pink haired boy probably didn’t even notice it from how dense he is, Kana sweat-dropped before having a great idea.

“Hey, Gray” she called and all six mages looked at her. “You want to make it up to me from this year’s failure?” her cheerful tone put Gray on edge immediately and he even slid away from her and towards Loke behind him, carefully eyeing her.

“I don’t like the way you put it but what do you have in mind?” he asked, already regretting he didn’t take the most logic option of running away.

“This” she tapped the notebook, “perform this and I’ll let you off of drinking for the whole night with me.”

Loke felt Gray’s body stiffen and start to sweat, of course with him wearing only pants it was very easy to see, but his increasing breathing was becoming a little worrisome. Just a little. “I agree. You should perform it and kick that happy couple out of the stage. They got boring already.”

“See, Gray” Freed said and the boy turned to him so quickly he wondered if he didn’t snap anything in his neck, “we all agree you should perform your compositions. What’s the use of you writing them and never bringing them to life?”

“Don’t know. I just do them to relax and relieve myself from some stress and frustration.”

“Just go up there and perform, Gray” the masked man said, threatening him to take the headpiece off and make him do as said.

“Besides, I bet you’ll get a lot more frustration and relief from performing than just creating them” Laxus added and Gray just knew he was cornered and his six friends would gang up against him until he complied.

“Fine, I’ll do it. But don’t expect anything good!”

“Okay!”

Growling, the dark haired boy got up and walked towards the stage, doing his best to ignore his friends grinning faces. He talked to Lisanna to let him have a few minutes on stage, almost started a fight with Natsu before the white haired girl dragged him out and he stood facing his guild mates, all looking at him expectantly. Embarrassed, the boy scratched the back of his neck before addressing them.

“Okay, so… I’m not sure how well it’ll go, so don’t expect much. Also, I was forced to do it by those nasty friends over there” he pointed to the table he was sitting and received whistles and catcalls from them. “And lastly, it’s just a little something I wrote on my free time.”

Taking a deep breath, Gray focused on his magic and murmured “Ice make: Stage” and the whole stage was covered by ice. Some of the mages whistled impressed but they were silent, waiting. The boy walked to the back of the stage, almost out of it to the side and created a grand piano there. Positioning himself on the ice bench, he took another deep breath before pushing down on the keys. The following sound got everybody’s undivided attention.

After a few seconds, an ice piece appeared on his face, from his right ear to his mouth, looking like a microphone, except it wasn’t connected to anything, but had some holes to let the air flow through. And he murmured a single line before the other instruments on stage started to play by themselves.

_I’m trapped_

Faceless ice clones were formed around the piano and started to dance to the music’s beat. Gray also got up on the piano, joining in the dance and the instrument continued to play by itself.

 _I can’t move, why am I getting heavier?_  
As I’m inside of the corner of your heart, yeah  
I want to touch you but I’m in this black darkness  
I keep settling down in this same place, in that place, yeah  
I’m getting more and more forgotten inside of you  
Inside this love that always lingers  
Oh I’m trapped, I’m trapped

The clones danced perfectly with the mage, like they were other people doing a thoroughly rehearsed choreography, and not once, despite the steps, did Gray’s voice falter.

 _I’m getting tired, I guess I’m dreaming alone_  
Will you strongly shake me and wake me up, wake me up?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped

 _I’m losing myself, I can’t even remember my name without you_  
Now will you let go of me from inside of you, let go of me?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped

_I’m trapped, oh  
I’m trapped, oh_

_You and I, we are becoming more different_  
In your endless greed, greed  
I am an abandoned bird inside a small birdcage called you  
I can’t even fly away, yeah  
I am getting more and more weak inside of you  
Inside of this love that always lingers  
Oh, I’m trapped, I’m trapped

Somehow, the public noticed, Gray’s voice got an echo effect and a double tone.

Most of the mages didn’t notice, but his closest friends, the six he shared a table with plus Erza and Makarov saw the subtle changes on the stage’s ice, how it would create some channels and how it would affect the sound waves. All in all, they thought the ice mage took too long to use this talent of his.

 _I’m getting tired, I guess I’m dreaming alone_  
Will you strongly shake me and wake me up, wake me up?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped

 _I’m losing myself, I can’t even remember my name without you_  
Now will you let go of me from inside of you, let go of me?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped  
  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped  
I’m trapped, oh, I’m trapped yeah

 _I want to forget you (I want to forget you)_  
I want to fly away (I want to fly away)  
I want to let go of you (I want to let go of you)  
I want to be free (I want to be free)

 _I’m getting tired, I guess I’m dreaming alone_  
Will you strongly shake me and wake me up, wake me up?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped

 _I’m losing myself, I can’t even remember me name without you_  
Now will you let go of me from inside of you, let go of me?  
I’m trapped, I’m trapped  
I’m trapped oh oohh

Gray finished his performance slowly. One by one, the clones dissolved into thin air. He walked back to the grand piano and slowly the ice covering the stage melted. And until the last note, the piano stood strong like a crystal piece instead of ice. But as soon as he finished, the whole guild erupted in cheers, surprising him beyond belief.

Among the many compliments shouted at him, Kana’s enthusiastic and drunk shout stood among all others.

“That’s our Icy Fairy!”

 


	2. Hurricane

**02 – Hurricane _by B.A.P._**

X782 – Magnolia, Fiore

Gray arrived at the guild and sighed in annoyance. The gloomy atmosphere that had settled over them two weeks ago was so out of place it irritated him beyond belief.

For once, the mages were quiet. Elfman and Mirajane were huddled together at a table with Erza and Kana, these two girls trying to get a reaction from the siblings other than them blaming themselves for what happened. Natsu was another zombie-like person in the hall. As much as Happy was affected, he still tried to spur the dragon slayer into doing anything other than mop in the guild. The rest of them weren’t that much better. Some went for minor jobs, but always went and came quietly, fearful they would disrupt the delicate state the Strauss siblings were in. To one side, the ice mage found the Raijinshuu with frowns on their faces. A little away from them, he saw his best friend, for once without any of his usual groupies.

With a tickling on his eye, he couldn’t hold himself any longer.

“Lisanna is dead” he stated and coldly watched how most of his guild mates flinched. Some, his best friends, looked curiously at him. “Flashing news for you guys, just because she is not with us anymore, doesn’t mean the world isn’t spinning anymore, or that time has stopped, or that life lost its meaning” more flinching. “Now do everybody a favor and cut this crap!”

“What the fuck, Gray!” Natsu finally broke free from his dead state and glared at the ice mage, fists ablaze.

“That’s what I should be asking you! Somebody dies and suddenly you have nothing to live for anymore?!”

“’Somebody’? Do you consider Lisanna just ‘somebody’ in your life, you bastard?”

Gray’s dark blue eyes hardened before he calmly replied. “Lisanna was as dear a friend of mine as she was to you. The only reason I can walk as lightly as I am about her demise is because I understood what she would want us to do as opposed to you guys having your heads so down in this funk it makes you blind and deaf to realize you are doing the exact opposite of what she would want.”

“Like you know anything!” Mirajane suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs, voice strained by her crying. The white haired girl glared at him with teary eyes, but that had no effect on the boy.

“I do” he murmured too low for anyone to hear, looking away for a moment before locking gazes with her again. “Is that what you think? Then do me a little favor and answer this: were you in her position now, would you want your beloved ones to sulk and stop living because you are dead?” he saw the siblings flinch along with Natsu and many other mages. To the side, he got a glimpse of Erza, Kana and Loke’s smile at him. “I know for one, that if I were to die and found out you guys decided to mop around like this because of me, I would come back and beat the crap out of you all out of frustration. If I died, I’d want my family to live for me, not forget to live. Are you guys that stupid? For hell’s sake, we are Fairy Tail! Nothing stops us! If a nakama is gone, we live for them what they couldn’t!”

Sniffs to end crying all over the hall was heard. Elfman finally looked up and Mira got a new shine in her eyes. But Gray’s eyes were now locked on Natsu’s face. The pink haired boy had yet to move, but the surprised look in his eyes told him that he was processing what was said. Unfortunately it would take a little too long if not helped by an outer force, thought the ice mage.

“Hey, flame brain!” and that did the trick of getting a reaction from the fire mage. “I bet you can’t accompany me” and Gray proceed to make an ice stage out of the whole hall.

“Like hell I can’t, frost bite! Bring it on!”

Faces lit up to the change of mood. Some grins split faces and eyes shined. The air changed dramatically and everyone started to get up slowly, waiting expectantly for what their resident musical idol would present them this time.

Gray started his ice instruments and an upbeat melody boomed in the place. He calmly walked to Elfman and Mira and pulled them to the center of the hall, into the mess and started to sing. Dance was naturally invoked from within all of them and for once, no one minded Vista doing his weird dances.

_Oh, let’s goooh~  Yeah!_

_Ready to fly, you and me, everyone up and down_  
Scream and go crazy, rollercoaster ride  
Put your hands up, you know, how we go  
We gotta break it down, break it down, feeling good tonight!  
A dazzling and shining star  
I want, baby, I want, baby  
Boys who fly around the world, up in the sky  
Shall we shake up the world, putting in the palms of our hands?

It was then, amidst the mess of moving bodies, the space was cleared, tables and benches and chairs were pushed to the walls and a dance floor created. Everyone, one by one or in pairs took the spotlight and had their ten seconds of glamour improvising. Whenever Gray was not too busy singing, he would engage in a battle with the others and push them, more and more to do better, put their souls into it and leave behind the grief.

 _We’re hurricane! We’re hurricane!_  
We’re hurricane, hurricane  
We’re Fairy Tail!

 _Magazines, lacrima, news, wherever it is, everyone watches us_  
Spreading like a fatal virus  
Fiore, Bosco, the west and east, from south to north   
I hear the loud cheer in the night!

 _The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire_  
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire  
Magnolia, Hargeon and the Capital City  
Crocus, Clover, the Council, I guess I got a feeling  
The place that calls me a stage killer  
But keeping my humble attitude, alright?  
My growing spectrum, I say la lala lala lala

 _The path we’re on right now is the new rhythm of magic_  
The real ones who know how to party  
Big fish in a little pond,  
riding the magical folk to fight and party   
We can do it all, we are awake  
Our growing spectrum, we say!   
(Shall we shake up the world, putting it in the palms of our hands?)

 _We’re hurricane! We’re hurricane!_  
We’re hurricane, hurricane  
We’re Fairy Tail!

The following day, things in Fairy Tail became livelier. Everyone was still adjusting themselves to Lisanna’s absence, but things were way better than the day before, after Gray managed to plunk the three worst people out of their depression. It seemed that overnight, Mirajane and Elfman had a sudden change of heart and had their personalities reversed. When the girl showed up wearing a long dress and the guy had a wilder look everybody stared. Mira announced she was quitting being an active mage and would only work at the guild’s bar and help everyone as much as she could. Elfman also surprised his fellow mages by inviting everyone into a brawl to show his manliness.

Sitting at a back table, Gray and Loke stared at them dumbfounded the whole time.

“Did you foresee that change?” the ginger haired male asked his friend, who could only shake his head in denial, still unbelieving what his eyes showed him.

“I can only hope nothing else comes out of it. Anyways… Back to what we were discussing, are you up to it? I mean, that crew is crazy.”

“And you would know about it, right?” Loke smirked and the younger male refrained from freezing the other’s face right then and there.

“Master practically dragged me all the way to Valencia* to accept the request because it would profit the guild almost as much as a SS-class mission two years ago” the ice mage grunted and Loke patted him on the shoulder in condolences.

“Well, there you have the bad side of being that pretty. I bet in some years that won’t happen anymore.”

“I can only hope. Though sometimes it’s funny to rub on Kana and Mira’s faces I can beat them in modeling” they laughed.

The pair talked some more and finished the details of their next mission together, the arrangements for the day-long trip to the other city and schedules of works, so as what would be predictable of a normal day between those two friends, Loke turned his flirting mood on and Gray sweat dropped.

“No.”

“Come on, Gray. It’s been so long, you have even been singing your feelings since last year. Why not give us a chance?”

“We have cleared it already, Loke. No.”

“Darn” Loke dropped his head in defeat only to poke it up hopefully, looking like a curious kitty, “Still best friends?”

Gray laughed and nodded. “Until death do us apart.”

“Hey, Gray” the two friends turned to look at the new voice and eyed curiously a fidgeting Natsu standing right beside the ice mage. The dragon slayer looked tired, skin a little pale, dark rings under his eyes and lacking the usual energetic aura that always surrounded him. “Can we, um, talk?”

Both Gray and Loke raised a dubious eyebrow at the other’s uncertainty. They looked at each other and after a second, the ginger haired stood up and gave the dark haired mage a small smile. “Have fun you two, just don’t kill each other. I’ll take a walk around town” he said, which Gray instantly interpreted as him going to meet some of his many lady-friends. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“See you then. And don’t overdo yourself with your fangirls.”

Fire and ice mage waited until the other was gone before facing each other. Gray motioned for the dragon slayer to take a seat beside him, but he shook his head. “I rather we talk somewhere more… private.”

“O…kay.”

The two young mages walked out of the guild in silence and started towards the riverside unconsciously. So used to go there together, it was almost like auto-pilot.

“So, you and Loke are going on a mission together tomorrow?” Natsu asked calmly from one step ahead.

“Yeah. Clarice* is shooting for a few companies’ new autumn and winter collections and she requested me again. This time to bring an interesting manly looking guy with me” Gray rolled his eyes at his photographer’s antics, but shrugged. It was always like that and he should already be used to it. After all, as he told Loke before, it was not the first time he was asked to pose in female roles.

“Why not ask me, then? Don’t I look interesting?”

“Pff! You know, the artistic staff would put you under some layers of make-up and a dress and make us pose as something like the Summer and Winter Sisters or some shit like that. No way I’d do that, thank you very much. You look much more like a girl than I do, not to mention the pink hair” he snickered and dodged a flying fist to his head.

They continued the light talk and friendly banter some more until they were at the drying riverside.

These nice talks these two had was one of the things most people, even among the guild, didn’t know about Fairy Tail’s Salamander and Ice Alchemist. They were pretty good friends despite the constant brawls wherever they were, whenever it happened, however it went. It was a historical fact, though, that they began this dynamic of theirs a few months after they met. Initially, Gray would provoke Natsu, and Natsu, being the short tempered boy he has always been, would rise to the provocation and fight back, literally, with his fists. Eventually, it became a double way provocation whenever they felt like it.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Gray asked finally when they were seated on the grass.

Natsu sighed and looked down at his restless hands. “Yesterday, when you cheered us up… I guess I have to thank you for that. You really inspired me.”

The ice mage stared at his companion, wondering when Natsu hit his head strong enough to turn him into a nice honest person. “Are you sick, flame-head? If you continue talking like that, next thing you’ll be declaring your undying love to me and ask me to be your boyfriend” he mocked and turned back to look at the horizon, a very subtle shadow of pain and longing in his eyes.

“I’m not sick, you stupid stripper! But… Would you?”

When Natsu asked that in a small almost timid voice, the dark-haired teen snapped his head back to look at his friend with eyes as wide as saucers. “The fuck?!”

“W-well, you heard me!” the pink haired mage exclaimed, red covering his face and ears and eyes refusing to look up. “I… We have known each other for so long and I don’t have the same chemistry we do with anyone else… I mean, we did promise to be mates when we were kids…”

“Yeah, we did…” Gray murmured and looked down as well. That was a dirty trick, to bring up that promise they made so long ago, when they were mere children and buried not long after it was made and had a silent agreement to never so much as brush on the subject again. He knew, Natsu knew and Natsu knew that he knew it was a fucking excuse and nothing else. Deep down, the ice mage knew he shouldn’t continue harboring these feelings for the pink head, that the guy was an air-head and would forever stay with Lisanna had she not suffered that incident on her last mission. Now with her gone, it was painfully obvious he was but a substitute for her. So, why? Why couldn’t Gray let it just go and move on? Just what was wrong with him?

“Will you forget about me again when a cute and defenseless girl shows up at the guild?” he asked quietly. Later Natsu would mock him saying he sounded like a timid girl and he would tell him to fuck off and freeze his balls. But right now all Gray could think of was how stupid a person could be to give in to the person that forgot about you for four years so easily.

“Of course not! I promise, Gray, we are going to be together forever, okay?”

“I will rub it on your face if you don’t keep that promise.”

The rest of that day and night, Natsu decided he would make the ice mage his and his alone. He promised the other he would be with him whenever he needed and respect him as much as they could respect the other (which had a weird level of depth that absolutely did not apply to the basics levels of social respect). He promised they were going to be together forever and as soon as possible, under Master’s permission, they would be official mates.

That night, feeling the dragon slayer’s burning warmth, Gray chose to believe his promises, knowing that under some easily molded circumstances the other would forget half his words. He pushed the depressing fact that this relationship had no way to grow romantically away and decided to live a few moments of happiness with the mage he fell in love with in childish innocence and loneliness. He cursed Natsu for being such a convenient simple-minded bastard. He cursed himself for being so weak and stupid.

The next morning when Gray and Loke met at the station to depart for their first seasonal fashion mission together, the ginger head had to stop and stare at his friend and not-so-secret crush. The boy had a different air about him. Almost like he was lighter and yet there was something tying him halfway underground. And the thing that kept his eyes glued to the dark-head that was on his bare neck under his jacket collar.

“Gray? Is that a hickey?” he asked pointing at the pale neck sporting a bright red spot just above his collarbone.

“I don’t want to hear it” and Gray turned and both walked into the train.

Loke could only wonder if he was going to be able to survive long enough to help his best friend pick the inevitable pieces of his broken self when the time came.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Master Makarov decided to wait for a week in hopes of receiving any good news from the villagers in the Kotek Region* after listening to the whole tale of Natsu, Lucy and Happy. Unfortunately, they never did and the only thing they ever heard of the Northern Country was that they found nothing, no matter where and how long they searched. Word, then, spread quickly in the magic world that one of Fairy Tail’s strongest mages was now passed.

The day of the funeral was as bad as the day half of Team Natsu returned to Magnolia. The sky was clear, the sun shining bright, a nice breeze was blowing, the birds were chirping, it was all wrong compared to the mood the gathered mages at Magnolia’s graveyard. Every mage of Fairy Tail made it to attend the ceremony. At the forefront, no one dared to fight for the place with Kana, Erza, Laxus, Lyon or Loke, all five of them silently crying and barely holding themselves up. No one asked and few knew, but the air around them just gave it away.

Those people were the closest Gray had to a real family. Lyon was a known fact that he had trained under the same master as Gray and so they had a long history of brotherhood. Most of Fairy Tail knew Gray, Kana and Erza had the closest relationship of complicity in a sibling way from all groups of the guild, what with them being the youngest mages of it for some years, it was only natural they’d stick with one another. Laxus was an unusual case of being the older brother figure for those three, pulling the role of bad example and grumpy half-responsible brother perfectly, after all, where do you think Gray picked his bad habit of smoking? Loke, though, was an exception for the group. He was the only one not considered a sibling among them. He was the one to occupy the place of best friend and partner forever, not taken when Natsu and Gray started dating, not taken when he became Lucy’s Spirit, not taken after the seven-year time of disappearance from Fairy Tail’s core members.

Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen stood behind Laxus, all three of them keeping their heads down and eyes closed in sadness and respect. Much like the thunder dragon slayer, they saw the ice mage as a little brother, one that could be really annoying at times, but was always reliable and a great person, especially when he proved himself not afraid of facing a mini-scarlet monster to open up to everybody else.

Right behind Kana, Wendy with Carla and Happy hug one another, trying to be strong, but too grief stricken to be able to. The young girl had the dark haired mage as a brother, one of the many she got with joining the guild. But he was special. He and Erza would often take requests with her and help her whenever she asked and even if she didn’t, they offered it with a warm smile that let her know they trusted her and didn’t think she was weak, but they cared. Not to mention, from time to time when she got sad, the ice mage would cheer her up by singing or teaching her how to sing or dance, or both the same time.

To one side, near the lion spirit, Juvia and Gajeel stood stoically with thin tears coming out their eyes, which was quite a curious sight, everyone thought the rain woman would be flooding the town and creating a (not so) natural catastrophe; she didn’t. After the Grand Magic Games, she and Gray had come clean for once and for all. Juvia loved him, Gray didn’t return the feeling, but liked her much like he liked Kana and she accepted. Though the rain woman would slip into fangirl-mode now and then, they set into a comfortable partnering and friendly relationship. On the other hand Gajeel and the ice mage struck a friendly musical rivalry relationship after his first (hated) performance in Fairy Tail. They had respect for each other magic and musical wise, and that was enough for the oldest dragon slayer.

A step behind the frontline, Natsu glared at the tombstone with thick tears running down his face, in his arms he held a crying Lucy.

The blonde still couldn’t believe. This was not the first time she was faced with death. Years before, her mother died and left her practically alone at home with only the celestial spirits and staffs to make her company. Then, when they came back from the incident with Tenrou Island, she found out her father had just died. She was but a child when she lost her mother and it was bad enough, then having matured and kept a distant relationship with the father, besides her friends’ help, Natsu’s specially, it hadn’t been that difficult to overcome the sadness. But those were caused by illness! It is harder to fight some fatal illness than for a Fairy Tail mage to die, no matter what they’d be facing. Gray’s death wasn’t supposed to happen anytime soon, or ever! Why was her life so cruel?

Meanwhile, the dragon slayer could only think of how strange this situation felt to him.

He was numb, like a part of himself was missing, without him even knowing. He reasoned it must be the loss of a nakama. When the same happened to Lisanna, he felt something similar to this. But in a way, it still felt different. Was it because differently of the animal take-over mage Gray was someone he had a deeper connection with? It made sense to him. The two could fight in perfect harmony together with so much as exchanging a look. He hardly could do that with anyone else. Then maybe it could be because he was there the time the ice mage was hit and he felt like he should have done more. For fuck’s sake he was there! It was his obligation as friend and nakama to keep his friends safe. Gray was one of the strongest people he knew, not that he’d admit so to him, and he had survived Deliora’s attack when a kid, a war with two big dark guilds, Acnologia’s attack and then a whole out war against seven dragons and its offspring. How could he just die like that for a minor ice demon?

The other fairies were sobbing and hugging each other for comfort. They may complain time and time again that the ice mage together with the fire dragon slayer made the most destructive team the guild had ever seen, only worsened when Erza was put in the middle. But a nakama was nakama and Gray would always be their beloved and talented stripper, and no one else could claim that!

Some mages from Lamia Scale, Sabertooth and Blue Pegasus also were present, having known the ice mage for a while or any other kind of interaction with him or to support a friend. The old masters from the guilds stood aside, silently looking over their children with weighted hearts, Makarov, particularly. The short man couldn’t believe that little brat of eight years that walked into his guild so many years ago looking for powerful mages was gone.

In front of the assembled group, was Gray’s tombstone. It was a marvelous piece, made in dark stone with a snowflake sculpture atop it. At the base, a simple script could be read.

_Gray Fullbuster_

_X766 – X791_

_Beloved friend and brother_

_May the song of the ice ring forever_

Timid and child-like whines sounded from the entrance and the mages turned to see a group of children and teens with some civilian adults, young and aged. Kana, Erza, Wendy and Loke recognized them right away and motioned them to come closer. The young ones ran to the girls’ side and hugged them, creating a fake attempt of a dog pile. The adults walked quietly and exchanged sad looks with the three present grown-ups that helped the House the most before addressing the children.

“Now come, let’s pay our respect for Gray-niisan, so he’ll know we all still love him” one of the middle-aged women said to the young ones and slowly, one by one, they placed a small flower at the base of the stone and murmured some words barely understandable between hiccups and sobs. When all kids and adults were done, the eldest woman – a strict looking lady – turned to Erza and Kana.

“The House will still stand?” she asked quietly, knowing it wasn’t the right place to talk business, but she couldn’t help. Her worry for the orphanage was too great to live another minute in doubt.

It was Erza who answered. “Of course. Kana and I will continue to care for it for as long as possible. And I assure it will be for a long time.”

The old lady nodded smiling in appreciation and turned to guide her group out of that death place. The children shouldn’t stay another moment around there.

“I guess it’s time we go too” Laxus said suddenly. “We still have some things to take care of.”

The other four beside him nodded and along with Wendy, his three team members, Juvia and Gajeel, they turned to leave the site. Surprised by their attitude, Lucy looked up and stared at them. They hadn’t been there for an hour and they were already leaving?

“Wait!” she called and the group looked at her, all of them already with faces clear of any tears. “You are just going to continue working right after we lost…” she couldn’t continue. It was one thing to understand the fact, but to actually say it aloud would set it in stone and the reality of things would change.

“Gray is dead, Lucy” Erza stated firmly, receiving gasps from many mages, most of them from other guilds and the ones from Fairy Tail she noted joined after Lisanna’s supposed death. “And it isn’t because of it that the world is going to stop spinning or time stop to flow. If you don’t want to forget about him, then live for him” the scarlet haired young woman turned and continued to walk away with the others headed to Fairy Fields, the male dorms of the guild.

Slowly, the other mages too started to leave, saying a last pray to the deceased mage and walking away quietly until only Lucy and Natsu were left, staying long after the last person was parted with a worried glance at the couple. The dragon slayer stood on his place, unmoving, fists still tightly closed and eyes still locked on the gravestone.

“Natsu” she called but there was no response from the fire mage. “Natsu, it’s getting late. Let’s go back to the guild at least.”

Natsu stared at the grave some more seconds before turning and offering the girl a hand. Silently she took it and the pair went back to the guild.

The following weeks, Fairy Tail slowly got back on track of being the ever roistering guild it was known for. Everybody went back to their usual weird self, partying for the most random reasons, going on missions frantically with the approaching end of year and (confirmed by Master Makarov) S-class Promotion Exam and living the fullest. It was almost like they haven’t just lost one of theirs.

One day, Lucy had just returned from another series of missions with Natsu and Happy and was enjoying a little rest on the guild bar. Surprisingly to her, the damage caused by them was minimal and most of the reward went to them, which, of course, made her very happy. Spinning on her booth with drink in hand, her brown eyes surveyed the hall and she wondered how some things had changed for the past three weeks since the funeral.

At one table, Levy was reading a book a little too focused, ignoring Jet and Droy besides her talking to Mark. She giggled at that, moving her gaze to the pair near the Request Board discussing what mission to take next. Juvia and Gajeel could be seen spending a lot of time together, usually going on missions. The blonde guessed their relationship when they were still with Phantom Lord was quite close and only now, with Juvia’s main distraction not around, it was showing.

At another side, Erza, Kana, Wendy and Carla were also talking about missions, but theirs had already been decided on an S-class one and the white cat was lecturing the three girls about being careful. Lucy had earlier asked the scarlet woman in curiosity about her sudden partnering with the other two and she simply said she and Kana had always gone to missions together when they were younger and she saw Wendy as a little sister, so it was only natural.

Some other random mages were around, drinking and talking and mostly doing nothing interesting, so she turned back to the bar and her writing. Unfortunately, she’d been stuck in a writer’s block recently and couldn’t seem to get out of it no matter what she did.

So focused on her thoughts, the girl didn’t notice Natsu come from behind her sporting a serious expression on his face, nor his sudden grin and imminent attack.

“Hiya, Lucy!” he yelled and hugged her middle, scaring the hell out of her.

After she calmed down and punched him on the head, both were peacefully sitting side by side eating lunch. The celestial spirit mage had put her work aside and was fully enjoying one of Mirajane’s famous dishes.

“Hey, Lucy” the young man called munching on a piece of meat and she responded with a simple ‘Hm?’ “You wanna be my girlfriend?”

As one of Mira’s perfectly timed ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ situations, she happened to walk by when Lucy spit all contents in her mouth directly at her face level.

“I’m sorry, Mira-san!” the blonde said to the white haired woman, who just brushed the incident off, and snapped back her attention to the dragon slayer. “What do you mean, Natsu?!”

“Well” he drank from his cup and swallowed down before looking right into her face, “I am asking if you want to have an official romantic relationship with me. What, have you turned stupid?”

“I understood the meaning of the question!” she fumed and drew her eyebrows in confusion and crossed her arms. “What I meant to ask is why are you asking that now? I remember you saying, when we started to fool around after the Grand Magic Games, that you didn’t feel it would be right, even if you liked me and all. What changed?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like it is right now. Don’t you want to?” Natsu asked seriously, looking intently at her.

She looked at him seriously. It was something that could only be described as one of her many dreams come true. Ever since she met him at Hargeon Port, there was a crescent feeling in her that drew her closer to him each day they spent together. Of course, many times his childish and brute antics pissed the hell out of her, but it was the same childish and brute Natsu that saved her too many times to count and had her falling deep in love with him.

So Lucy did the only thing she could think of. She beamed at him, opening the brightest smile she had since coming back from Tenrou Island. “Yes!”

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Somewhere around the northeastern endless plains of snow, a group of rough looking men was traveling towards Pergrande Kingdom. They hoped to reach the next village before nightfall or the next blizzard, fortunately, the weird sudden weather changes stopped a month prior. Rumor had it some mages from Fiore took care of the case, whatever it was that had been causing the trouble. That didn’t mean, though, they were safe out in the snow, after all it wasn’t unheard of sudden storms around this area of Iceberg at the end of the day from late September on.

From time to time, a couple from the ten men would walk ahead for a while and come back to join the main group with reports on the surroundings. At one of these scouting of no new development, the pair sent signaled a finding. Quickly the others went towards them and their leader approached the duo crouching on the snow.

“What you found?” he asked in a surprisingly smooth and deep voice.

“You’ll like it, boss. ‘Tis a fair maiden” one of the scouts said grinning and both showed their finding.

It was a young woman with pale skin and raven short messy hair, completely bare of any clothing. She was by no means a small person. She had narrow shoulders and a thin figure, but her legs were long just like her arms, in perfect proportion with the torso. From neck to toes, muscles were apparent, not overly developed, just right to indicate that body was strong and still maintaining her femininity, yet easily confusable as male with the right clothing. There was no overly round butt or thighs, nor overgrown breasts. And her face albeit delicate, could easily pass as a pretty guy. Some features that made the men annoyed, though, were the small scar atop her left eyebrow and the cross shaped one at her lower right abdomen besides the deep blue bird-like tattoo on her right breast.

“Is she even alive?” the boss asked, eyes still roaming the naked body.

“Heh” the other scout answered. “She’s cold as ice, but still alive with a subtle but present pulse. And what’s better, she’s untouched.”

Large smirks grew on everyone’s faces. “Then get to work! Put the bitch with the others and don’t forget to scan her!” the leader ordered and soon other two men brought the woman to one of their two carriages.

Opening the only door to the back of one carriage, they tossed the unconscious body inside and went in afterwards, locking it after them. Inside, there was a single lamp to illuminate the space. Cramped there, were four young ladies, all huddled together with fearful expressions etched on their faces at the men’s entrance. They didn’t give them any importance at the time and proceed with their orders. One of the men took a thick blanket out of the many bags pilled on a corner and brought over while the other took a rod-like device and started to hover it over the woman. Immediately, the jewel at the tip of the rod gave a bright glow and the instrument was put away. The men looked at each other and nodded. One of them got out and left his partner to proceed.

He walked to the boss, group already on the move again.

“Report” the leader demanded when his man come to him.

“The chick is a mage and a hell of a powerful one too. Me and Dra were almost blinded by it. Dra is putting the shackles with the runes on her right now, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but better note it on the record.”

The boss nodded and dismissed his subject to join his co-worker. He thought about what has just been said. They had found a young woman, with a wonderful and pure body and she was a powerful mage to top it. He grinned. Things couldn’t be better.

That group was one of the many slave trafficker groups that travelled around the northern area of Seven, Iceberg and Pergrande Kingdom, and right now they were headed to said Kingdom for the annual Human Auction of the black market there, and this last finding was sure to grant them a lot of money.

x- Hours earlier -x

In a swirl of snowflakes, a figure was materialized, a figure of long limbs, strong muscles, pale skin, jet black hair and dark blue eyes. Those dark blue eyes with long and straight eyelashes and droopy lids eyed the endless field of white around, small dots of white still dancing around it.

_Nothing?_

The figure asked itself mentally and tried to take a step forward only to fall flat on the snow, the magical atmosphere broken.

 _No energy…_ The figure noticed trying to move any limb again and not succeeding. Knowing that the cold would never hurt, it closed the dark eyes and shut down into a deep slumber, deciding to rest and recover some energy before attempting anything to understand what was happening and what its identity was.

In that slumber, no scene, but feelings and a name came forth.

It began with immense happiness, the kind to warm the whole world and everybody with it in the most comfortable way. Then there was a sudden blow of pain of rejection followed by frustration, the type that installed itself into somebody’s core and turned and grew until it became anger and lashed out, but all the while the pain was still present, hiding behind the anger and rooting itself deeper and deeper.

The anger slowly dimmed, never leaving, but became smaller and gave space for something else to grow: a content notion of friendship. That lasted a while and then that happiness from the beginning came back, but now it was bittersweet, so much there were moments a need of some sort of release became so much things got fuzzy and spiraled into circles after circles of melodies.

Then things felt like a rollercoaster ride. One moment there was joy, another there was anger and then fear. After there was confusion and anger mixed with happiness to turn into almost blind rage in many levels and confusion again and hope, only to finish with the bloom of the one feel that followed in the shadows all the way: betrayal.

This emotional circuit was carried by and began with one name: _Natsu_.

When deep blue eyes opened, their owner was assaulted by a lot of information.

The young woman was seated on a very comfortable armchair though her position was anything but. Around her neck, wrists and ankles were shackles attached to the armchair. On their outer face of the metal pieces, she saw the glowing runes and sighed at their meaning.

_No using magic then, until they are off._

Aside from the metal pieces, she was bare to the world if not for a simple sash going over her right shoulder down to pool on her right hip and fall aside. Her arms were tied to the armrests and ankles to the furniture’s bottom, keeping her in place.

She was placed on a room filled with many people, half of them being young and pretty ladies with very different features but in the same nude state as her, though they were merely shackled to one another or poles, all looking terrified and disheartened; the other half consisted of strong looking men, heavily clothed and armed with whips and spears, some even carried some daggers. These men moved around hastily, dragging or pushing some of the women around or simply stood watching over them with hungry looks in their eyes, _guards_.

What caught her attention, though, was the whispered talk among the females.

“That one is the big prize of the year.”

“I heard she is a mage. Do you think she is strong?”

“That is unlikely. If she was, she wouldn’t be here.”

“Makes sense. But how to explain her lack of marks? I mean, we came in the same load and our traffickers gave her one hell of torture, but she always healed instantly, like her body turned into snow and then flesh again.”

“Not to mention never once did she wake up for the five days we travelled after she was found.

“Maybe that’s her only magic? She could be a healer or something and have no offensive power.”

“Well, that is possible.”

“For how much do you think she’ll be bought?”

“They say she’s a mage and virgin, right? Plus with her looks, I’d bet they’ll start with 1.000 gold pieces.”

“That much, huh…”

The rest of the talk became unimportant and the dark haired woman turned back to her musings.

If only the runes tying her didn’t block her magic or at least physical strength, she could easily burst out and not be subjugated like this. She had no idea who she was or what she did before gaining conscience in the snow plains, but this situation was humiliating.

So without anything to do, she waited. For long hours, more and more girls were dragged out of the cold room and sold at high costs to sadists and perverted people. Finally when no one else was left but her, five men came to her and threw a blanked over her and carried the armchair somewhere. The young woman didn’t feel anything, not a hitch of breath, no acceleration of heartbeat, no nervous perspiration, there was only blank boredom to be read on her figure.

She was eventually put down and someone, an energetic man, started to speak.

“Now we come to our last and most valuable piece of the night!” as on cue, the blanket was pulled off and she stared right into a huge audience sitting on comfortable chairs for meters on end. “This is Snow White! As you all can see, ladies and gentlemen, this young lady is of excellent quality. Perfectly sculptured body, her strong form promises countless services for the most select tastes and varied imagination! And the qualities don’t stop there! This beauty is magical! Literally! She specializes in ice magic and the best part is that her body, whenever hurt, reconfigures itself immediately and leaves her bare of any marks!” murmurs of disbelief erupted from the audience and the announcer smirked.

Another man came onto stage holding a broad short sword and positioned it on her lower left abdomen. Their eyes locked and he grinned. Gasps echoed among the buyers when he impaled the blade on her body and yanked it out enlarging the cut. She grimaced and bit down on her lip to hold any sound of pain from coming out. Warm blood oozed down the open cut down the hip and thigh onto the chair. The announcer then came and cleaned the injury, showing off the icy surface left that was quickly turning into flesh again. Amused applauses erupted from the spectators and the cheerful mood was back.

“Now, my dearest ladies and gentlemen, I have proven my words, let us finish the list of wonderful qualities of dear Snow White! The one, most of us would only dream of finding in a beauty of this age, this one feature that pushes people to their limits and beyond! My lovely guests, Snow White is as pure as her name! Here in front of you, is an immaculate young lady!”

From that point on the woman blocked the voices out as they started to shout prices over prices. Her dark eyes trailed to the side of the stage, where the man that stabbed her was standing, still holding the bloody blade. He felt her gaze and smirked. Mocking her, he brought the weapon to his lips and liked the blood with an annoying expression of satisfaction. Her eyes narrowed and she silently promised him pain, and a lot of it. Looking away from him, she directed her gaze towards the open sky overhead.

The stars were twinkling beautifully. She recognized many constellations among the shining dots. The Leo circuit was the one that had her attention the most. It was strange, something in it gave her a sense of familiarity. And for one second, she closed her eyes and allowed a small smile to be drawn on her thin lips, thinking it would be nice to be among the stars.

Then the stars crashed on earth. Literally.


	3. Ice flower

**03 – Ice Flower _by Ailee_**

Dark sky, very bright stars, planet-like objects of different sizes and with the most varied forms on it, nebulas and rainbow like stone paths, that was how the young woman would describe her surroundings to a child.

“Mistress” a deep, strong and female voice said from behind her and the dark haired turned to look at who called.

In front of her, now, were crouching nine figures of very distinct appearances.

At the front were a male and a female human figure. The best way to describe them was as hunters. The man had a rough look to him with pelt like clothes and armor, a circular shield on his back, a sword at his hip and a bow and quiver full of long arrows hanging from one broad shoulder, he had shoulder long silver hair and a stern face with hard eyes and long beard. The woman had the same wild themed image to her as her companion, but instead of a sword and shield, she carried knives and a spear. Her long wavy hair was mostly tied in a thick braid over her strong torso with a few stresses falling around her face.

To the hunter’s right side stood a silver cross-shape headed creature with long braided beard and small hunched body covered by a long robe. To the huntress’ left side was a beautiful lady of tanned skin and long wavy brown hair, she wore a long light colored silky dress with thick chains going around her waist, shoulders and arms.

Right behind the pair of hunters was another couple of human figures. The man had platinum short hair and bright ice blue eyes. He wore a long coat over a prince like tunic and had a swan theme all over his image with feathers on one shoulder and hair. The lady beside him had light brown hair braided into an elaborate high bun, fair skin and deep dark brown eyes. She wore a long sleeveless light purple dress and had a big beautiful harp at her side.

At the back, three animals bowed their head towards her. To the left was a gold striped silver serpent the size of century old tree. At the center stood a pure white winged horse. And to the right was a serpent like dragon of dark green scales and silver hair.

“You are the highest celestial spirits of the constellations of Orion, Crux, Andromeda, Cygnus, Lyra, Hydra, Pegasus and Draco and this is the Celestial Spirit World. Do tell me though, why am I here?” the woman asked in deep smooth and cold voice, keeping her face stoic and looking at each of the spirits in front of her.

“Mistress” the male Spirit of Orion answered, “we were called by you and brought you here.”

“Even without having your keys, you say I summoned you, Orion?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

The woman took her eyes away from the group and looked around again, nothing changed. She looked down at her body and noticed the attire on her: black combat boots, baggy dark brown pants, fitting dark blue tank top and a hooded cream colored robe over her shoulders. No shackles. No chains. No limiting runes. She smiled at that and turned back to the spirits.

“Any idea on how I summoned you when my magic was sealed inside my body?”

“Yes, Miss” the Crux Spirit spoke up. “What happened was a very rare occurrence. The last time a deed like that was executed was long ago. Miss’ wish, mingled with her powerful magic connected with our world’s and both tuned opened our gates spontaneously.”

The human nodded accepting the explanation. “And why the nine of you? I didn’t have anyone in mind and the constellations shining over me were not only or all of yours.”

“As for that” Pegasus spoke, raising his head to look at her with his golden eyes, “we wanted to come and let others stay behind. It had been a while your energy interested us, and finally Milady was able to call us.”

“That is correct. Personally, since my little sister told me the Lady’s story, I wanted to meet thee” the Lyra Spirit commented and had an arm from the male beside her hold her waist, both exchanging warm smiles.

“What of the others?” the woman asked looking at the rest of the rising spirits. All of them looked at her seriously but with a warm feeling.

“Since the last time you came here, we all felt your connection with Leo-sama. It intrigued us” Andromeda responded and covered her lips to giggle. “So we asked and he gave us the most interesting answer ever heard from him.”

“And may I question what it was?”

This time, Orion snickered and exchanged funny glances with his friends. “He described this dear friend of his as one of a kind and someone he wouldn’t mind be tied to for the rest of his immortal life.”

The human arched an eyebrow. “Is that so…” she looked at them all closely then asked one last thing, closing her eyes with a calm smile on her lips. “You mentioned me being here and having contact with your kin before. I have no recollection of such though. Could you help me understand why I have no memory?”

The spirits looked surprised at her admittance and looked at each other again, before they turned back and answered with huge grins on their faces, “It’ll be a pleasure!”

Over the next hours, Cruzeiro, the Cross, investigated as much as he could to come up with a reasonable explanation to the woman’s situation. The other eight spirits helped as much as possible, but mostly they made little talk to let their guest know them better. In the end of the day, with the spirit’s researches and the woman’s own knowledge of magic (which was nearly unlimited), they came up with her having had used one of the few ancient and prohibited spells in the ice magic field that dissolved the user’s body and reconfigured it right away and unfortunately her body was not strong enough to finished the spell without collateral effects, ending in her losing her memory and a late reconfiguration into a slightly wrong shape.

That aside, the spirits said her other visit to the Celestial Spirit World happened a few months prior and with some friends of hers, mostly because ten of the Elliptical Zodiac Spirits missed the owner of their keys and brought the mage and friends there. And finally, all nine of them asked to make contracts with the woman, whose name they had yet to learn.

“I don’t remember. You guys should know it. The last thing I was called was ‘Snow White’ and I rather never hear that name associated with me again” she said with a frown.

Eurydice, the Lyra Spirit, put on a thoughtful expression. “Well, you could use the name my sister said you went by, but I don’t know if that goes well with your current image, Lady.”

“Let’s hear it anyway”, Ludo, the Draco Spirit said from his position lying down next to the human.

The harpist answered them and their contract was made, but in a very different way than most contracts between celestial spirit mages and spirits were made nowadays. Over their promised words, a magical link bound them together and only absolute defeat of the mage would free the spirits from their contract. And most importantly, the physical keys would always, some way or another, return to their owner and never accept any other call if not from their real partner.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

The incoming December, for Fairy Tail, meant one thing: chaos. Not that it didn’t describe the guild the rest of the year, but in this last month in particular, it reached levels beyond human comprehension.

Since the S-class Promotion Exam was announced months prior, everybody went crazy, wanting to compensate the seven years they all lost, for the strongest member, and trying to come even the slightest close to them, for the members that didn’t partake in the Grand Magic Games and couldn’t show off as much. And this time, not one mage was left behind in the craziness.

Lucy went on as many missions as she could with whoever would want to go with her or even alone in the less dangerous ones. Natsu and most of the other males were as crazy as always. Juvia, Kana and Wendy and Carla partnered often and usually went on a series of quests in a roll. Even Erza was taking the competition seriously, much to many people’s dismay, the fire dragon slayer, for one, took it as a challenge.

Master Makarov watched every one of his children going around and thinking of the changes since their return from Tenrou Island. He was fairly impressed by how much they all have grown so quickly and even more proud of how everyone moved on so fast carrying their passed friend’s will. With three days before the announcement of this year’s candidates for S-class mages, he already knew who he was going to call.

The day finally came and the guild was cramped with mages. For the past months after the Games, Fairy Tail’s fame came back full force and many mages joined them, adding to their family, but those who were there since little still were the most enthusiastic ones and they stood at the front line with beaming faces.

Standing on the guild’s stage, flanked by Erza, Mirajane and Laxus, Master eyed everyone and forced a cough to gather their attention. As soon as the hall was quiet, he started his speech.

“We all know that for the past seven years, due unfortunate circumstances, this Fairy Tail custom was not followed. But now it has changed and we are back!” cheers erupted from everyone before quieting quickly. “I will now announce the participants of the S-class Mage Promotional Exam!” Even more cheers were shouted now. “The trial will happen in the same place as last year, the Sacred Grounds of Fairy Tail, Tenrou Island! And I don’t want to hear speculations of another attack! We have, this time, seven participants!

“Natsu Dragneel!”

“Alright!”

“Gajeel Redfox!”

“Gihi!”

“Juvia Loxar!”

“Juvia will do it for Gray-sama and herself.”

“Kana Alberona!”

“This time I’ll do it!”

“Elfman Strauss!”

“Man!”

“Freed Justine!”

“For the honor of the Raijinshuu I’ll become S-class.”

“Levy McGarden!”

“Eek! Me? Now?”

Cheers and compliments were shouted all over the place and the participants started on their ideas and the others that didn’t and in a way expected a chance thought on what to do better for the next year and congratulated those whom were chosen.

“Like last year,” Mirajane spoke up and the people turned to listen, “you all are given a preliminary week to choose a partner that best suits you.”

“The rules also remain the same,” Erza then said seriously, “the chosen partner must be a mage of Fairy Tail and cannot be S-class.”

“And as a bonus for you all,” Laxus commented with a mischievous grin on his face, “Master allowed me to say this much: Erza, Mira and I will be around and there will be fighting.”

“WHAAAT!”

Minutes later, most of the candidates were gathered at a table with their friends, talking over drinks.

“Yo, chibi” Gajeel said turning to Levy, who jumped a little. “Sorry, but this time you’ll have to do on your own. Lily and I are definitely going to make it.”

“That’s right. I’m going to make Gajeel an official S-class mage of Fairy Tail” the dark cat said smiling proudly beside the metal dragon slayer.

“Well, I’m definitely no match for any of you guys in battles,” Levy said keeping a calm and confident expression on her face, “but I’ll do my best and if it turns out to be an intellectual trial at some point, it is you who will be eating my dust! Besides, Lu-chan is going to help me, right?” she turned to the blond girl, who jumped in surprise at the mention of her name.

“Eh? Me? But…” Lucy turned to the brunette a few seats away from her. Kana found her gaze and laughed and waved her off.

“Don’t worry, Lucy. Go be Levy’s partner. She’ll need it” her brown eyes got a mischievous glint in them. “Also, there was something I wanted to ask you, Lucy.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Can you call Loke? I want to speak with him.”

The others at the table looked at the card mage in surprise, dots quickly connecting. “Are you going to have Loke as your partner?!” Lucy screeched.

“I think it’s only natural” the celestial spirit showed up out of nowhere behind Kana’s seat.

“Since we lost our common partner” the woman smirked and looked at the ginger-haired man, who had the same expression.

“What do you mean, ‘your common partner’?” the celestial mage asked confused.

“Before Gray was a candidate, he was my fixed partner. And then Loke became his. So, Gray is our common partner. In more ways than that” she finished smirking slyly and licked her lips, to which Loke only chuckled lightly, but said nothing.

Instantly, Lucy, Juvia, Wendy, Lisanna, Elfman and Levy became beat red and one could see steam coming out their heads.

“What’s the problem with you guys? Those three were drinking partners. Haven’t you noticed that ice bastard could drink two thirds as much as Kana?” Natsu asked with a straight face and watched confused as the others dropped off their chairs.

“Weird people” Carla commented. “What were you even thinking?”

“Ahahah. Nothing, nothing” the youngest girl of the group laughed awkwardly. Damn her waking hormones for giving her nasty thoughts. “But then that is settled. Gajeel-san’s partner is Lily-san. Levy-san will team with Lucy-san and Kana-san with Loke-san.”

“Don’t forget me and Natsu!” Happy jumped up and fist-bumped with the fire mage.

“And Freed is probably partnering with Bickslow too. So that leaves only Juvia to pick a partner” Lisanna commented from her spot beside her brother.

“Why didn’t you count me too, Lisanna?” the big man asked with the faintest whine in his voice.

“Oh, but I thought you were going to do it again with my new sister-in-law?” the white haired girl asked pointing to Evergreen, who was having a heated argument with her two teammates, both men seeming to be annoying the hell out of her by her red cheeks.

Elfman shut up and the others watched smugly as red crept up his neck and face then laughed.

“Actually,” the rain woman said after controlling her laughter, “Juvia wanted to invite Wendy-san to be Juvia’s partner.”

“Me? But why?” the small girl looked surprised at the blue-haired woman.

“Because Wendy-san and Juvia have been working well together in past missions. What does Wendy-san say?”

“It’ll be a pleasure! I’ll do my best, Juvia-san!”

With that the pairs were formed and they disbanded to do some preparations for the following week.

The day the mages spent on Tenrou Island was intense and at the end of it, all candidates and partners had to be literally dragged back to the guild from exhaustion.

The Exam was a one round, free for all battle royale; whoever of the candidates was still standing after five hours or recognized by one of the supervisors would became Fairy Tail’s newest S-class mage. In the end, none of the pairs were left standing, but Natsu, after fighting Erza for two hours, was promoted. Not that he had the energy to celebrate the accomplishment or was even awake to hear it, but the female knight wasn’t unharmed either.

The night of the day they came back, was filled with music and laughter and cheers despite ten of them being too sore and tired to do much. Naturally that didn’t stop Kana from dinking or Bickslow from pestering Evergreen and Elfman about their relationship, neither stop Lucy from yelling at Natsu and being answered by a very sloppy kiss on the lips or Gajeel from clearing the stage for him and sing one of his infamous songs. And obviously, half of the building was nearly destroyed by intense partying, which also involved fighting, because a Fairy Tail party wasn’t a Fairy Tail party if there was no fighting involved.

A few days later, when Lucy could actually feel her body again with little pain, she went to spend a night at Natsu’s house, taking advantage of Happy having a sleepover at Fairy Hills with Carla and Lily and Wendy and Erza. Letting herself in with a spare key, unsurprisingly, she found the front room in a complete mess, though it was still better than the first time she came around. With a sigh, she surveyed the problem and got to work, cleaning everything, putting overturned furniture back on its place, washing dirty pots and pans, throwing away the trash. Of course most of the work was done by Virgo, though.

About an hour later, when she was putting the last item back on their place on the shelf at the back of the room, a messy collection at the lower level sticking out the curtain got her attention. She kneeled down to see what it was and froze on the spot. It was just not possible that Natsu, of all people, would do that. What were the chances?

The front door opened and Natsu came in, saying a cheerful ‘Hi!’ after seeing the blonde in his house.

“Natsu Dragneel” the celestial spirit mage said darkly and cold sweat started to form on his body as he began to tremble. She sounded really mad and had waves of dangerous aura emanating from her body.

“W-what?” he stuttered meekly.

“Don’t you ‘what’ me. What is the meaning of this?” she said getting up on her feet and holding something, face slightly turned down and not facing him.

“Wha-what is the meaning of what, Lucy?” the dragon slayer took a half step behind, thinking seriously about fleeing his own house. A pissed Lucy was as scary as a strawberry-cake-less Erza.

“I said don’t you ‘what’ me. Now tell me, what are these things doing here?” Lucy was still sounding dark and scary, but she took a step aside and let Natsu see what she had found.

Hesitantly, the young man looked at her feet to see what this was about. His nervousness and fear vanished instantly and he approached her putting his hands on his hips. “What of these?” he asked nonchalantly.

“WHAT OF THESE!” she screamed at his face, face contorted in rage. “HOW CAN YOU FEEL SO LITTLE OF… OF… OF THESE THINGS! DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS?”

“I know what they mean. I don’t know why you are this mad” he deadpanned and Lucy turned to pick another object out of the shelf.

“For how long have you had these?” the blonde asked shaking with contained anger.

“Ten years, if you count those seven years.”

“That long… And never have you thought about telling me? Not once?”

“Why should I? What does it matter if you knew or not?”

“It matters a lot! Do you really think our relationship means so little?!”

“Lucy,” Natsu said seriously and put his hands on the girl’s shoulders, making her look at him with teary eyes, “I told you I love you, haven’t I?” she nodded slowly. “Then believe it! They don’t mean to me nearly as much as you or our memories do.”

Lucy didn’t respond to that. She moved her gaze down and stared at the objects in her hands.

“Besides, why are you so worked up for a few discs and music players?”

The girl snapped her head up and glared at her boyfriend. “Why am I so worked up?! Natsu! This is the Icy Fairy’s entire collection of albums and singles and videos he has ever recorded! His entire career is here! The first single! The first show! Everything! How do you have it?!” she kneeled down again and stared dreamily with tear and star filled eyes at the boxes filled with Compact Lacrima Discs (CLD)* carelessly thrown there.

Natsu cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms. “What do you mean? Everyone from Fairy Tail from before the seven years have a similar collection.”

Lucy’s head turned back to him, doing an almost 180 degrees turn and scaring the hell out of him. “What?” she asked in a dead tone.

“Yeah” he dropped himself beside her and started to fumble with the lacrimas. “Why do you think he is called the Icy _Fairy_? He’s the guild’s main financial supporter. The bastard’s dirty rich and many Fairy Tail mages have been featured in some of his songs and shows. Loke and Erza and Kana did it the most, but now and then Laxus, Ever, Bickslow and Freed would be called too.”

While Natsu spoke, Lucy could only stare at him with wide eyes. How was it possible that her favorite artist was so close yet she never knew it? From the beginning of his career, the celestial mage had followed all his activities. This magical musician was her idol! His love filled poems, bittersweet tunes, upbeat melodies, all of it, she loved them all. Many times he was the one to cheer her up when life at home became too bad and lonely with his dream giving songs. During her early teen years she’d constantly imagine she was his beloved he sang so many times about with so much passion and undying love.

“Also” the pink-haired spoke again, “everyone from Fairy Tail received free VIP passes to every show he had or participated as a special guest. They were pretty nice, specially the backstage food. Damn lucky bastard.”

“I can’t believe I was around for six months of his career and never knew of it!” for no good reason, she started to strangle and shake Natsu.

“But you didn’t lose anything! There hasn’t been a show since you came around!” he said very difficultly. Somehow he managed to escape her grip and hugged her tight, bringing her face centimeters from his. “Besides, why are we talking about that guy?” he lowered his voice and a good shiver ran up Lucy’s spine. “As far as I remember, you promised to give me a celebratory gift for my promotion as soon as you could move without pain.”

The blonde shuddered when he bit her ear lightly after speaking and grabbed his vest tightly when a hot hand sneaked up her thigh under her skirt. “Well, that I did” she answered seductively and put a hand on his face. When they were facing each other, their lips crashed together and not much later Natsu had carried his girlfriend to his room and had her gently placed on the bed, him joining her in the next second.

The next day, both walked into the guild hall with the brightest mood ever. It didn’t take the others much to realize the couple spent the night busy together. Erza got particularly curious when Lucy sat beside her and plugged a CLD-player on and soon started to hum happily.

“What are you listening to, Lucy?” the scarlet-haired woman asked, trying to see the lacrima’s cover.

“My favorite artist! The Icy Fairy! I can’t believe Natsu had his whole collection at home and never told me” she rambled staring dreamily at the player and didn’t notice the quick gleam of sadness that passed in her friend’s eyes before she smiled and put a hand out.

“Let me hear it with you. It’s been a while.”

Without complain (and who would object the Queen of Fairies, Titania?) she handed one of the earplugs over and both happily listened to their favorite musician.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Blood red eyes took in the remains of what once was a grand open theatre, now covered in snow. Zeref wondered where was now the source of great magic power he felt here three months prior. It had been so fast, he barely noticed it, but it was inevitable. Someone had reached a level of power that surpassed anyone he had ever met in his long life, and dare he say, it could rival his own. That thought alone frightened him as much as it excited him.

A sudden gush of wind blew by and he had to close his eyes. Upon opening them, he had a nice surprise for in front of him, some meters away where once stood a beautiful stage, was now standing a dark haired young woman, unsurprised by her surroundings’ state. The black mage smirked.

“What an interesting surprise to see you again and here of all places, so far away from Fiore, Fairy Tail’s ice mage, Gray Fullbuster.”

Gray closed her eyes and let the corners of her lips be pulled up before turning to face the ancient mage, calm smile still in place and cold amusement illuminating dark blue eyes. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I have no memory of us ever meeting, but since you know my name, would you care to tell me about our other encounter?” she asked while walking to him calmly, like she wasn’t approaching a mage whose specialty lay in death magic.

“Hm, have you forgotten about me or have you lost your memory all together?” They now stood side by side, each facing the other’s opposite direction.

“I have lost my memory as an unfortunate side effect of an ancient spell. Would you tell me, though, the circumstances of our acquaintance? Even without knowing what I did before, I doubt I’d associate myself with a black mage of past times like you. Hm?”

“There you might be right. We were enemies the last time we met. How about we trade some information, then? I tell you how we first met and you tell me how you acquired this level of magic power in so short time.”

“Agreed” Gray then turned to look at the other, “what do you say we have this civilized conversation over a nice warm drink? I believe there is a town not too far south from here.”

“Sure, why not?”

In another gush of freezing wind, both mages were gone, leaving behind only ruins and snow in the rising sun.

Within minutes, both dark haired mages found a nice café with tables set on the streets just in front of the store. Each had a cup with steaming tea and was intently looking at the other. Although their outer appearance was that of tranquility, like they were old friends, anyone with strong magic awareness would be able to sense the danger contained between them, what with both mages having their magic ready to act but not a bit of it coming out their bodies, staying right under skin. It was a very delicate and dangerous situation, in which any wrong movement could be fatal.

Calmly, like nothing, Zeref told Gray of the events of Tenrou Island, how he was awaken by Grimore Heart, how he nearly killed some of Fairy Tail mages and how the black dragon Acnologia paid a little visit to them, as a bonus info. While he told his stories, he was curious to how the woman in front of him would react and surprisingly she never changed her facial expression when Fairy Tail was mentioned, like she really didn’t remember them at all. He tried mentioning some of their names, the First Master and Natsu, then, at the dragon slayer’s mention, he identified an interesting spark in her eyes, but nothing else. On the other hand, Gray told Zeref of waking up in the snowy plains of Iceberg, being momentarily too weak to do anything and how she suddenly summoned the strongest representations of some constellations, all the while having no memory of what was happening but being very conscious of her own magic power. And while the female knew she couldn’t trust the man facing her, he seemed to know her and what better way to know oneself than to speak to their enemy? When both were done telling their tales, silence installed between them.

“Allow me to guess one thing, will you?” Gray asked taking a sip from her cup.

“Go ahead.”

“You said you had locked your memories away and changed your personality.”

“Correct. Are you interested in retaining yours?”

“I am. But that is not the matter I am interested in right now” she said calmly and dark blue locked into blood red. “What I want to know is what you are planning on doing now. For all matters, you going back to your devil-like personality means you dislike humanity and want to be done with it. No?”

Zeref smirked. “Yes. Soon I might give the world a one-sided annihilation and free it from this curse that is called humanity.”

“Hmm, so you say” Gray said pensive and crossed her arms, still keeping her pose cool. “What brought you to such decision, though? If you hate humanity so much, there must be a reason. _You_ were human once.”

“Well,” the man mirrored her action, “humans are stupid. They keep repeating the same mistakes over and over every new era. Eventually it becomes annoying and I just don’t want to see it all repeat again. That aside, why should I want to live in a world that has rejected me? As soon as I am recognized, people want nothing but to get rid of me.”

“Does that mean you are simply rebelling like a child throwing a tantrum for nor being liked by his friends?” His eyebrow ticked. “Have you never tried finding someone to spend time with?”

“And you believe such ‘someone’ exists? That is unlikely. That aside, why do you keep sounding like you are defending humanity? For all we both know, it had given you nothing but pain” Zeref pointed out and amusedly watched a cold glint grow in her eyes. “You may not have memories, but you did mention you still have a history of feelings that goes back to a human. Why keep living among these creatures that know nothing but to make others suffer for their own pleasure?”

“Why indeed? Maybe it could be because as useless and fool as they come, humans are interesting. And though I have yet to see a real good side on them in this life, I am curious. I want to see them live on and prove you wrong, even if a small group.”

“What are you saying, then?”

Gray leaned her body forward over the table and stared intently at his face. The tranquil atmosphere was broken and their magic slowly started to seep out their pores. “I am not letting you do as you please and destroy humanity. I am going to stop you.”

“So, game on.”

If there was anybody watching the pair of dark haired mages talk, they would think they were a couple having some kind of argument for the intensity of their gazes. And then, they would be surprised, not necessarily in a good way, that in a blink of the eye they were gone. The seats they occupied would be cold, like never used, but the cups they drank from were still on the table, warm. It would be a mystery for years to come. But there wasn’t anyone keeping close attention to them.

After an hour long chase game with Zeref, Gray landed at the outskirts of a town. Looking around, she tsc-ed and turned to the town. A chase game between two mages capable of using teleportation magic was hard to accompany and ever harder to finish, and now the woman was left to mentally curse him and plan her next actions until the man gave any sign of life again.

Entering the town, Gray found out it wasn’t a big place, but not so small either. People walked around for no reason, working or basically playing in the case of children. Reaching what she thought as the central town square, her ears picked on a nice melody being played on the piano near a small fountain placed right at the middle of the square. Looking that way, she found a young lady with said instrument surrounded by some people watching her curiously and some that continued on their way but still glanced the musician’s way.

_Another day quietly passes again_  
I am just living like that  
I can’t do anything  
Only memories remain

There, Gray felt something curious, a feeling something else should be there complementing the melody. On a whim, she created a violin of ice and joined the girl playing, surprising not only her but her audience as well. More and more people stopped to listen and enjoy the music after the new addition. The musician turned to the mage and was about to ask something when Gray smiled and shook her head, indicating for them to continue the performance. And the lady complied.

_If only I can love again after time passes  
It would be nice_

_Tears, my memories can’t forget you_  
Heart, my memories can’t let you go  
If only I can see you just for one day my love

_I can’t turn things back now  
Only memories remain_

_If only I can approach you after time passes  
It would be so nice_

_Tears, my memories can’t forget you_  
Heart, my memories can’t let you go  
If only I can see you just for one day my love

_I know it’s love, even the past days  
My tears are flowing_

Feeling the ending of the song, the mage felt another impulse and opened her mouth. The pianist continued with the lyrics and enjoyed how well their voices played together with this stranger doing impressive vocal tricks she had yet to learn, not once letting go of the violin.

_Tears, my memories can’t forget you_  
Heart, my memories can’t let you go  
If only I can see you just for one day my love

As the last note faded into silence, everyone applauded and the little purse left beside the piano was filled with money very quickly, surprising the musician. After thanking the dissipating crowd, she turned to the mage with a thankful smile on her face.

“Thank you so much! I never had this much profit in a performance before!”

“You are very welcome. But that is a beautiful song, how did you come up with it?” Gray asked while the girl closed the piano.

“Oh! Well, I thought you knew it, since you joined me so perfectly” the other woman commented confused.

“No, it was on impulse. Just felt like it fitted. So you didn’t write this song?”

“Haha! There is no way. I’m not that talented. How about I pay you a meal for helping me? Then we can talk better” she offered smiling, pointing a thumb over her shoulder to one of the many food places around them.

“Sure, I am a little hungry anyway.”

“By the way, my name is Lina.”

“Nice to meet you, Lina. Mine’s Gray.”

The two ladies found a nice and cozy restaurant and enjoyed a nice warm meal to fight against the winter’s chills. In the middle of it, they resumed their prior conversation.

“That song is called Ice Flower and is one of the Icy Fairy’s most famous ones. In an interview, he said it was dedicated to his late family, but I personally believe it was also dedicated to a lover of his.”

“An ice flower from an icy fairy. That sounds interesting. And you, miss, sound like a fan of his. Why is that?” Gray asked playfully and Lina laughed.

“I grew up listening to his songs. He was pretty popular seven years ago and to this day you can find a lot of people that still listen to him. His career officially started in the beginning of X782 and was a huge success, but due some circumstances that involved in him being an active member of a magical guild in Fiore, in the end of X784 he disappear. Seven years later, around July this year, there were rumors of him coming back but not many months later he was killed. I was so sad when I read the news” Lina dropped her head on the table and mock cried there, making Gray laugh at her antics.

“Well, look at this! It seems to me someone had a fan-crush on her idol!”

“I can’t help it, Gray!” Lina rose and hit the table top with her palms. “If you saw him you’d do too! Not only was he very talented at singing. He wrote all the lyrics and melodies of his songs, he could play any instrument and even make double tuned voice! Not to mention he was a strong mage and damn, what can I say about that perfect god-made sculpture he called his body! Seriously, it was perfect and he even showed it off walking around places half-naked! What I wouldn’t give to have him in front of me like that…” she finished with a dreamy air around her, slumping back on her seat.

“You were… About eleven years old when he was around, right?” Gray asked cautiously and received a cheerful ‘Yup!’ from her as answer and burst into laughter. “I don’t even know what to say to that! This is so hilarious!”

The two ladies talked and laughed some more. The table was cleared by a waitress and they were given a mug of hot chocolate each. When they were finished and about to leave, Gray had another question.

“By the way, Lina, where exactly are we? I am kind of lost and want to go to Fiore. There is something over there I must check.”

Putting on a pensive look, the musician turned to the back wall of the restaurant and made her new friend follow her. “Here,” she put a finger on the map hanging there, “we are in Troa Town, in the southeast of Bosco*. To go to Fiore you’ll need to take a two-day long train ride. If you want, we can work together to earn some more money for you to travel.”

“That will not be necessary, Lina. Thank you for the offer, though, and sorry for leaving you on your own so soon.”

“What, it wasn’t like we had an agreement or anything to begin with. Though I must say I liked that performance. Hope to be able to do that again sometime” Lina laughed the other’s apology off and winked at the end.

They exited the restaurant and Lina had to ask in curiosity, “How are you going then, if not by train? You don’t hope to do that on feet in winter, do you? You’ll freeze to death!”

Gray smirked at the other. “Well, first of, I’m never bothered by the cold, I actually feel comfortable in it. And second, this is how I plan to travel” she reached for the belt under her coat and pulled a silver key with intricate carvings of the upper body of a winged horse at one tip. “Open, High Gate of the Winged Horse, Pegasus!”

In a flash of light, said creature appeared beside the girls and drew gasps from Lina and every passerby. The celestial spirit bowed to the mage and nuzzled her neck. “Milady, what can I do for you?” he asked in a loving way.

“You are a mage” Lina stared at her before going rampant. “You are a celestial spirit mage who can also do ice creation magic! How?!”

“I’m lucky?” Gray chuckled and turned to address her other companion. “I’m sorry to bother you with this task but could you give me a ride? We are two days away from Fiore by train and I rather not waste that much time.”

Pegasus tilted his head and inquired, “Why don’t you simply teleport there?”

“Don’t you want to spend time with me?” she countered back with a straight face and the spirit sweat-dropped.

He sighed in defeat and instructed, “Hop on.”

“Thank you, Pegasus. Tell me what you want afterwards and I’ll make sure to make your wish come true!” Gray mounted the celestial creature and turned back to a still gaping Lina. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Lina. I sincerely hope to see you again. And do continue with your lovely performances!”

Pegasus then jumped into the air and shot upwards. On the floor, Lina snapped out of her shock and started to wave at the retreating figures in the sky. “Good-bye, Gray! It was my pleasure of meeting you! Come back here one day to play with me again!”

Flying just under the clouds at breakneck speed, Pegasus spoke, “What now?”

“We go after Leo. I need to question him some things. And then I’ll go Zeref-hunting. That guy pisses me off.”


	4. It's cold

**04 – It’s cold _by Song Ji Eun_**

After flying for a little more than an hour, Gray’s attention dispersed from the way ahead and she looked down to the land so far away from them. She eyed the desert area, looking for anything that could explain the strange feeling of something calling out for help. Scanning the nearly endless ocean of sand, she found a little patch of green with a shining dot.

“Pegasus, please go down here.”

The winged horse started to do as asked but commented still, “We are still many hours from our goal, though, Milady.”

“I know” the woman frowned, keeping her eyes strained to see if she could identify what exactly was it she saw and lock on the strong presence under them. “But I think I felt life in danger down here somewhere. Can you find any civilization?”

Pegasus made his way down carefully to not harm his mage with the atmosphere pressure change in a hard drop and looked at the land with his sharp eyes. “That shining dot, I think it is a village. But it is covered by something to make it shine” he answered thoughtfully.

“Covered? Like a layer of glass or some kind of crystal?”

“Or ice.”

Silently they finished their way down and the celestial spirit landed on top of an irregular small mountain. Gray quickly dismounted and stared down. Indeed, the land, a whole village and nearby forest were covered in ice. She crouched and touched the hard surface with her hand, getting a surprising response from it. It felt like the ice wanted to tell her something and had a darker vibe to it than natural ice and even magic ice and far behind the torrential presence of cold, a diminishing source of warmth was trying to break free, a source really strong and also from past times. Getting up again, she glanced over at the rest of the place and found out that some of the ice monuments around them were actually humans of colossal sizes.

“Milady?” the celestial spirit asked curiously keeping close watch over his companion and the emotions that flashes on her face.

“Here we have a kind of magic you don’t see every day” she commented and added to Pegasus confused tilt of head. “This ice is from a slayer, a demon slayer, more precisely.”

“How do you know?”

“Huh” she chuckled. “It has the same vibe as Zeref’s magic. It feels like a demon’s work, but I can also identify its properties to fight them. And we are also standing on the empty space that was once occupied by a huge flame.”

The winged horsed jumped in the air and bristled when his mage started to laugh at him. “Don’t laugh, Milady! Anyone who isn’t fire natured would react this way!”

“I know, sorry! But it’s still funny, I can’t help it!” she stopped laughing and smiled at him. “Anyway, I want to take a look around before doing anything to this place. Join me?”

“Of course” he approached her and let her mount him. When she was securely seated on his back, he added before flying off to the village in a slow pace. “But I want a nice and long grooming sometime afterwards.”

Gray smiled and petted his neck. “Wish granted. As soon as we are done with the travel, okay?”

“Alright.”

Pegasus didn’t ask and neither did he have the need to ask why the mage wanted to do something about the village’s situation. It was just a little something that became clear to all spirits that Gray Fullbuster was a kind soul for how strong she was. They have seen it before, a glimpse of what her full power could do, if summoning nine High Silver Spirits was something to go by, and yet, may it be due her situation of memory loss or her very nature, they couldn’t have asked for a better owner for their keys, someone kind enough to treat the spirits like equals and give up three months of her time to spend a single day in the company of all her new friends.

So they flew for a while, going through what they assumed were the main streets of the village and over many frozen hairy heads, only to find everything frozen by the same magical ice of their landing point. With a light pet on his flank, he flew them back to the base of the frozen flame. Their findings were pretty simple: every being confined here was alive and had just to be broken free. Upon suggestion, the winged horse stomped on the ice at one point of their wandering in the forest area that was frozen and only got a small crack even if the celestial spirit had used nearly all his strength. From that Gray could make her conclusions without fear, it need some magical manipulation to come out.

Standing in front of the mountain of ice, she raised her arm to touch the cold surface, but just before doing so, two presences made themselves known behind her. When the mage turned, intrigued as to why a human and a beast would be together, Pegasus was already glaring at a raven haired dark skinned woman and a huge male beside her.

“Huh, and I thought only people of Fairy Tail were this annoying” the woman said with venom dripping from her voice, but looking into her eyes, Gray raised an eyebrow. That woman had quite a few problems going on in her life, but that was one being she was not interested in helping, after all, personal matters were not of her concern, not when the person with trouble was not important to her.

“Not that it matters to me anyhow” the celestial spirit mage said dismissively and locked her gaze on the male, face completely cold.

In a blink of the eye, she had thrown a narrow wave at him and pulled it back then forward again using the ice covering the ground. The big man moved like a ragdoll and fell backwards with a wide hole in his middle, dead. For that split second, though, flashes of images ran in Gray’s mind and took her concentration away but she quickly returned to the present. It wouldn’t do to be distracted with an enemy still nearby and a village full of living people waiting to be rescued.

The dark skinned woman looked at her partner surprised, how come he was killed that easily? For damn’s sake, he wasn’t even human! With cold sweat trailing down the side of her face, she turned back to her opponent only to find her with her back turned her way and hands on the frozen flame. She felt like being defeated by that damned scarlet Titania all over again, the humiliation of being looked down upon, or in this case, to be ignored like she presented no harm.

“Don’t you turn your back on me like I am nothing!” she yelled and threw a spell at Gray.

The fair skinned female never flinched, turned or got hit.

There was a little explosion and the attacking mage waited expectantly, but when it cleared she was devastated. Pegasus was standing between the two females with his wings smoking a little from receiving the full force of the attack and glaring coldly at the human who dared to attack his mage, aside from the smoke, there was no trace of him being hit at all.

“If you really want to fight, go look for the one you truly want to fight with” Gray said calmly, not bothered by the attack that could kill a normal person, even mage. “We have no business with each other.”

With the other woman staring unbelievingly at her, Gray focused her senses on the ice and slowly, like a rippling wave, the ice covering the land vanished into steam. Trusting her safety to the celestial spirit, she walked forward onto the altar ahead and met a small flame barely reaching her knees in height. She put a hand in it and closed her eyes. There, she felt it, the call from before. It was a hot voice, powerful yet it cared, cared for the people living around it. She reached into her core and pulled forth the blazing feel of great flames and in a couple seconds, the tiny fire expanded into a massive blaze visible from outside the defrosting village. Calmly she walked out the fire, completely unharmed and eyed the other woman blankly before petting Pegasus’ head.

“Just go find your purpose in life and what is the true meaning for your magic. I wish you well” Gray said coolly and sent the winged horse back to his world and teleported out of there, leaving behind a still stunned mage to stare at the space in front of her still processing what had just happened while the village finished to thaw and confused giants slowly woke up minutes before a group of four mages and two cats came into scene.

On her instantaneous way to her new destination, Gray couldn’t help but think about the images that invaded her mind upon intimate contact with the ice.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Silver stared sadly at the small wood cross he had made years ago in the middle of snow covered ruins of what once was a beautiful lively town. He had been kneeling there for a while, staring longingly at the two names he carved onto the cross, praying for the two most important people of his life.

Being so distracted by his emotions didn’t let the sudden presence behind him go unnoticed, though.

“You are Silver Fullbuster, one of Tartaros’ Kyuukimon and an ice demon slayer” a female smooth voice stated at his back.

The man grimaced and answered with a smirk, back still facing her. “That would be me alright. How do you know of my last name? I don’t recall telling many people that little piece of information.”

“I know that because…” she trailed off and Silver had to arch an eyebrow. He was about to ask her when she continued with a question of her own. “Are you my father?”

“Sorry, miss” he chuckled. “But I don’t have any daughters.”

“But you have a son named Gray Fullbuster, born in X766 here, in this town when it still stood.”

Frowning, Silver stood up and turned to face her. “Listen here, miss, if you are planning on taking advantage of me using my son, don’t even bother! He isn’t alive… anymore…” His dark blue eyes widened upon contact with the person he was talking to.

In front of him, was a young woman he could describe as the combination of his and his late wife’s features, or as a female version of his son. She had their trademark raven hair and dark blue eyes, pale skin and strong expression on handsome face. Her form also radiated power, incredible magic power that surpassed his by lengths.

“Who are you?” he asked with trembling voice, still in shock.

The woman sighed and looked away from him. “So far as I know, I am a human formed by pure magic that has been conscious for three months in Earthland-time and named Gray Fullbuster. Someone also mentioned my being part of a magic guild of Fiore that goes by the name of Fairy Tail.”

“Human formed by pure magic?” he questioned in confusion then contorted his face into a scowl. “Even if it was the case and it changed your body, it doesn’t mean you are my son! I will let you go this time, but to not claim to be Gray ever again. He is dead. Has been so for four months.”

Silver walked towards and past the woman with large steps angrily. When he was passing her, though, she grabbed his hand in a firm grip. The man was about to turn and demand she released him when she opened her mouth. The words that came out, accompanied by the blowing wind only struck deep in his heart.

_When you’re in pain from love, tears are the medicine_  
You have no faults, but you keep saying that you’re sorry  
Don’t cry for me  
It’s alright, I understand it all

The woman that called herself Gray sang the lines only he, Mika and his son knew. Her touch was cold even through his glove and that cold brought up memories of his that were safely locked into his heart and tears to his eyes.

_The man hugged his coat tighter around his broad shoulder and jogged the rest of the paved road towards a small two store house among the many others that littered the streets of a town in Isvan. He had a huge silly grin plastered on his face and a small package safely secured against his chest. The tall male quickly fumbled with the doorknob, entered the house and closed the door behind his back. He took off his thick coat and hanged it, cleaned his boots from any residual snow from outside and skipped upstairs towards the room he shared with the love of his life._

_At the doorframe, the man first peaked at the inside and his grin widened, eyes shining more than the stars in the sky. On the double bed, his beautiful wife laid with the most radiant calm smile the world has ever seen. Her hair was messy, face tired and looked ready to fall asleep, she was stunning. And most importantly, in her arms, protected from the cold winter wind by a sheet, was their precious baby sleeping soundly with tiny cute hands clutching the fabric, face peaceful and thick mop of dark hair on his head, just like both parents._

_The man quietly approached the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life. He seated as lightly as possible beside the woman and embraced her with an arm and with his free hand reached for the baby but stopped, his fingers just above the pale skin._

_“He won’t break, you know. Your son is strong” Mika said softly and watched marveled as father and son touched for the first time._

_Silver trailed a finger over his child’s little nose and he scrunched his face, one tiny hand coming up to take away the offending appendage. But even with the bigger finger brought away from his nose closer to his tiny slightly parted mouth the infant didn’t release it. Upon realizing it, the father chuckled and used his middle finger to poke at the soft cheek, making the little one frown again._

_“Oh, stop it, Silver” the mother laughed quietly. “Or my little precious treasure will give you hell.”_

_As if on cue, big dark blue eyes opened and looked curiously at his surrounding, stopping at the new face that appeared in front of him. Silver looked warmly at the mirror pair of his eyes and played with his son’s nose with his free finger._

_“Hello there, little one. I am your papa” the man said softly, afraid if his voice was loud it would irritate the baby._

_The baby boy made some muffled noises and used his other hand to hold onto the other offending piece of meat annoying him. Both parents smiled at the cute sight. Silver didn’t really mind his son was using his fingers as toys but when he stuck them into his small mouth, the man let out a playful ‘Hey!’ Beside him, Mika was giggling softly, watching amused how their son seemed to like his father a lot. The male adult playfully pulled on his fingers and was surprised to feel the little one’s strong grip on him. His surprise showed clearly on his face and had his wife laughing at him in pure delight. Then he managed to pull away from the tiny hands and regretted the next second._

_The baby started to cry at the top of his lungs, little chubby arms flailing around, trying to get a hold of his toy again._

_Mika hurried to sooth her son swinging him lightly up and down, but it didn’t work. The small limbs continued to flail around and they seemed to do so in Silver’s direction, who had the most frightened look on his face of his life. Decidedly, the woman turned and put the little boy in her husband’s arms and made sure that he was holding their little precious the right way._

_What happened was like magic._

_The baby boy stopped his crying instantly and that innocent curiosity was back on the round face. Silver sweat-dropped at his son’s antics but sighed in resignation. “So you like papa?” Big eyes blinked owlish and continued to stare. “Do you have a double personality or are you just a little manipulative cute baby?”_

_Mika slapped her husband on the arm and he turned to her in mock-pain, pouting like a child. This movement of his head made his long earrings dance in the air, and though it was a normal meaningless thing for the adults, it was like the most interesting thing of the world for the little one. His big dark eyes followed the movement of the shining piece until it stopped. When it did, he reached out a hand._

_“Ouch!” Silver cried out when he felt a sudden strong pull on his ear, more specifically his earring. “You are definitely a smart kid, I’ll give you that!”_

_“Of course he is!” the woman said proudly. “He is my son!” Said son pulled again on his new object of interest, trying to get a closer look at it. “And it also seems like he shares my taste for shining silver gray pendants.”_

_There was a sound none of them had heard before and it came from the little body still playfully pulling on his dad’s ear piece. Their son, who had a bright toothless wide smile, had just squealed._

_Both parents stared in shock at the baby boy. They looked at each other than back down again. That was the cutest sound they had ever heard._

_“What made you so happy, my precious?” Mika asked playfully while tickling his face, which provoked some of his ordinary sounds of happiness, but not nearly as pure as that squeal. In uncoordinated reflex, the small one also pulled on his father’s silvery again. “Haha! I think he really likes your earring.” Another pull._

_“Ouch! Stop that or he’ll rip my ear off. But I think it was something you said, love.”_

_“Hmm” the mother thought about it. “It happened at the ‘shining silver gray pendants’ part” another squeal. The parents looked at each other again. “Hmm, pendants?” Pull. “Shining?” Pull. “Silver?” Pull. “It can’t be… Gray?” Squeal. “Do you like ‘gray’ my precious?”_

_The baby tilted his head to the side and made some happy noises again._

_“Of all things, why are you interested in ‘gray’?” Silver asked poking his son on the forehead. The baby only looked at him curiously, as though in question._

_The new family spent some seconds in silence, looking at one another. Then Mika broke it with a chuckle. “Seems to me our little son is one of the smart ones and decided to choose his own name, right Gray?” the baby squealed in delight again turning to his mother._

_“Seriously?” the man asked his son skeptically only to have said son snuggle comfortably into his chest and shut out the world._

_“And it also seems to me he loves his papa very much.”_

_This time, Silver had no chance at all for a content smile spread on his lips and his eyes looked adoringly at the small body carefully cradled in his arms. It wasn’t only his son that loved him very much, him and his wife also loved their precious baby very much._

_That day was marked forever in Silver’s life as the day his son was born and the first snow of that year’s winter fell._

_You’re such a crybaby  
How can I let you go if you’re so soft?_

Silver joined in her singing, hardly believing he was doing it again after so long, this time with the person he had wanted to do so with since he first presented it to his baby child.

_“Daddy!” small and quick steps ran towards the man outside before their owner tripped and fell down on his face on grassy ground. Soon, sniffs and sobbing could be heard and Silver sighed with a small smile on his face._

_The man turned away from his friend, whom he was practicing a little sword fighting with, and went to his two-year-old son. The helped the little boy sit up and petted his thick mop his mother liked to call hair._

_“There, there, my boy. It wasn’t so bad, was it?”_

_Little Gray sniffed some more before shaking his head fiercely and looking up to the man he held above all others. He raised his arms silently in the universal sign to be picked up and pouted. Silver, being the softie he was, complied to his child’s request and held him up so they were face to face, that didn’t mean, though, that he got up on his feet, he just sat there, back to his waiting sparring partner, who looked at the scene snickering._

_“Did you need anything from me, my little Gray?”_

_The boy nodded quickly. “Momma asked me to call daddy.”_

_“Did she say why?”_

_“Surprise!” Gray exclaimed happily and made his father sigh._

_With a sheepish smile, Silver stood up and turned to his friend and before saying anything, the other man shooed him. “Just go and send my greeting to Mika. The Gods know not to go against that woman nor ignore him” he said pointing to the little boy, who grinned and waved at him. He waved back. “We’ll continue later, Silver.”_

_“Thank you, my friend.”_

_Both parties turned their way away from the grassy clearing at the outskirts of their town. It was one of those days of the year in midsummer the cold gave way to a little warmth in the cold region and let the people living there enjoy a little sun.*_

_Father and son made their way back home, greeting everyone on the way, many times needing to stop for the ladies and even some men talk to the little boy. That was one thing Silver never understood. Their family was pretty average. He was one of the best hunters among the townsfolk and his wife was definitely the best musician in the area, but he still didn’t understand what made them so popular or Gray the town’s favorite child. The man sincerely believed everybody was exaggerating._

_Long minutes later, the pair entered their house and walked to one of the back rooms, Mika’s sanctuary, how he liked to call it. The woman looked up from her piano board and smiled at the sight of her two favorite males in the world, the smaller happily sitting on the grown up’s shoulders._

_“Hello, my loves” she greeted them._

_“Hello there, my love” Silver kissed the woman’s raven hair lovingly. “What surprise did you have for me you made Gray run through half the town?”_

_Mika’s smile widened and pride radiated from her whole figure. “It is your son who has a surprise for you, dear husband. Why don’t you show daddy what you showed me earlier, sweetie?” she asked her son and the boy nodded enthusiastically._

_The father let his boy down and watched curiously how he walked to a wooden small instrument and sat behind it. He picked a pair of mallets and started to strike the bars rhythmically, creating a slow and beautiful melody. While the woman had the proudest expression on her face, her husband looked stunned at his baby boy playing a beginners marimba with high precision, concentration and joy._

_The performance took two minutes to finish and as soon as it did, Mika went to her son and picked him up, spinning him around and praising him for the great work. Silver snapped out his shock and went to his family, he shuffled his son’s hair with a wide grin._

_“That was amazing, my boy! When did you learn to play?”_

_Gray shrugged and hugged his mother around her neck. “I watch momma a lot.”_

_Both parents laughed. “You sure like your momma’s playing, right?”_

_The boy nodded smiling. “I want to be good like momma one day! And…” he trailed off and hid part of his face in her neck, a cute blush tinting his cheeks red._

_“And?” she prompted him, having a knowing look in her face._

_“And I want to be strong like daddy to protect everyone” he mumbled with a shy smile, playing with his mother’s long tresses._

_Beside them, Silver couldn’t control his face splitting grin when he picked his baby up and almost crushed him against his chest. “And I’m sure you will!”_

_My love is so cold_  
My heart is cold, you can’t leave  
If the good memories all freeze  
And if it can’t be erased, if it doesn’t melt, what do I do?

They sang together, voices harmonizing perfectly with her soft and his baritone, and like always, nothing but the wind as melody. An ocean of emotions engulfed both and the grip uniting them tightened, yet they continued to face away from the other.

_Gray was four years old and he could walk, run and jump very well. He could talk, read and write perfectly, even the big words he didn’t know the meaning yet. He knew how to play marimba and piano nicely and was learning how to sing and play flute. So he didn’t understand why his father wouldn’t take him hunting or at least teach him how to fight or even let him watch the practices most of the men did daily._

_“Why not?!” the boy yelled, stomping his feet on the wooden floor of his house and glaring at his father, who was fastening his coat._

_“I already told you, Gray. You are too young still. When you are old enough, I will personally oversee your training. But until then, no involvement with fighting for you.”_

_“That is not fair!”_

_“Yes, it is! Besides, most weapons are bigger than you are. And I don’t want to hear any more of it, you hear me” Silver said leaving no place for more arguments. A step away, Mika sighed, that was not the first time they had a fight over Gray not being able to fight, no matter how smart the boy was, because smartness didn’t make up for strength, not completely at least._

_The boy lowered his gaze and bit down his lip. Tears started to pool at the corners of his eyes and he dashed into the house, towards his room, without a word. Both parents followed him with their eyes until he was gone and sighed. They had a very stubborn child, stubborn and moody._

_“All of us know why I can’t take him with me” Silver commented in a defeated tone. “Even if I wanted to.”_

_“Yes, we all do” Mika agreed and approached her husband. “Do well out there and return in one piece, okay?” she kissed him on the cheek cheerfully._

_“My love! Do you trust me that much that I’ll be hurt?” the man exclaimed in fake hurt, making his wife giggle._

_“Oh, silly! I say that to remind you that if you do not, I’ll be obliged to remember you why I am the chief of this home, good sir” she said playfully poking his chest and smirking mischievously._

_Silver let out a dramatic defeated sigh and shook his head lightly. “Yes, ma’am. Anything for you, ma’am” then he hugged her tightly and kissed her fully on the lips. “Take care, you and that little stubborn brat we call son.”_

_“Of course” Mika giggled. “And you too, my warrior.”_

_Silver left the house and walked away to meet with his friends and hunt-mates._

_Meanwhile, Mika locked the door and went to see her child. As expected, the little boy was huddled on his bed with only a bit of his hair sticking out from an opening of the shell of covers. Every now and then, she could hear a hiccup coming from him and smiled contently. Lightly, she sat down and side hugged the weird fluffy egg._

_“You know why he can’t take you, right, my Gray?” she asked lightly and received what would be a nod from the soft mass. “Then don’t be mad at daddy. He only does that because he cares for you.”_

_“But he still could take me to watch his practices. It’s not like I’ll just rush in between them and get myself hurt for nothing” the little boy’s response was muffled and sounded weirdly, but his mother understood him perfectly. And most importantly, she understood he was still mad._

_Later that day, when Silver came back home and went to hug his boy, Gray looked him seriously in the eye, stuck his tongue and walked away. Confused, the man looked at his wife, who only shrugged and went back to finish dinner._

_“Oh boy… Talk about stubbornness.”_

_Even the sunlight is cold on days without you_  
Counting with my two hands is not enough  
For all the things that remind me of you

Silver tried a look at the woman and turned halfway. She was still facing away, head bowed and her voice was as perfect as how he remembers his wife’s being, smooth, well tuned and filled with her emotions. He could see, though, her shoulders trembling a little and her other hand closed into a tight fist.

_It had been a harsh winter and it seemed it would take a little longer than normal for the cold weather to go away. And in the middle of a blizzard, a family of three plus a couple of friend doctors was locked inside the Fullbuster’s household. The two medics had just finished patching up both father and son after a long hour and the struggle to get the little boy away from his wounded father. Now, firmly bandaged and taken care of, both males hugged each other in relief._

_“Shh, it’s okay now, my little Gray. Everything is going to be okay” Silver tried to sooth his crying son running a comforting hand on the child’s back. He felt his son shake his head against his neck and continue to sob._

_“But… But… Daddy got hurt because of me!” Gray cried out, voice coming out strangled and with difficulty._

_“It’s okay, though. See, my boy, I wanted to protect you that is why I did it. And we are both safe now.”_

_“But still! If I wasn’t stupid and went out in the beginning of the storm daddy wouldn’t need to get hurt!”_

_The man sighed. Earlier that day, a weak snow storm started and against his parents’ advice, the seven-year-old went out to play in the snow saying he wanted to test a theory one of the town’s scholars had told him. They waited a while, thinking the storm would take longer to pick up, but too soon it evolved into a blizzard and Silver didn’t think twice before dashing out of the house and looking for his son. He found the boy on a tree, holding its branches for dear life against the strong wind. On impulse, the man climbed the plant and picked his precious child, whom upon realizing the warm and strong arms around him was his father’s latched on his neck and wouldn’t release him if God asked him to. Silver sighed in relief after he had Gray secured in his arms and moved to climb down, but his foot slipped and they fell. He managed to land half standing, which was not the best of ideas since he damaged his foot and fell on his behind, all the time doing his best to keep the boy safe._

_Gray heard his father’s groan of pain and started to frantically ask what was wrong, because his daddy was the strongest man he ever knew and nothing could hurt him, so something must be really wrong. When the man wouldn’t respond, he heard voices shouting and some of their friends came to them, quickly helping Silver back to his feet and walking them the way back home. On the way, the child heard one of the men say Silver had hurt his leg terribly and needed some medical care immediately._

_They arrived home to a very worried Mika and were guided to the bedroom, where the boy finally got a glimpse of his father’s injury and blanched. The man’s right foot was twisted in a weird angle slightly, but he knew it was bad. He didn’t pay attention to the scratches he had all over his face and hands that were bleeding faintly. His daddy was hurting!_

_Two of the town’s best medics came rushing into the room with Mika at some point and started to care for Silver’s foot, which was basically sprained from landing bad, very bad. The process of putting it back to place hurt more than it was complicated, but it had to be put in a cast for safety reasons and the man was to be off that limb for the rest of the week. The other minor wounds were quickly taken care of through Gray’s persistence on not letting go of his father. One of the medics even commented his grip was worse than glue, but with Mika’s help they managed and as soon as he was dimmed fine and released from his mother’s lap, he flew back to his father’s side saying ‘sorry’ repeatedly and that ‘it was my fault daddy got hurt’._

_“Come on, Gray. Stop saying that. It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident, could’ve happened with anyone and at anytime.”_

_The boy shook his head in denial again and repeated his ranting all over again. Seeing there was no way of changing the boy’s mind, Silver sighed and let him cry until he was too tired._

_Almost an hour later, Gray quieted down and sniffed many times, rubbing his small hands on his face to clear some of the tears. His father looked at him then and smiled._

_“Hey, my little Gray” the boy looked up, still sniffing. “Good to know you still like me” he said playfully._

_Looking away and pouting, the child answered, “I never stopped liking daddy” he mumbled and the man looked truly surprised. Silver remembered after their first major argument about him not teaching his son how to fight the boy hardly talked to him or looked at him anymore, and that happened almost three years prior. “Sorry I was mean, daddy.”_

_“It’s okay, my boy” he hugged his son carefully but tightly. “I’m happy you are talking to daddy again, though!”_

_At that moment Mika entered the room, but stood at the doorway, silently watching her favorite males making peace._

_“Remember that day, not too long ago when you played to me for the first time?” Silver suddenly asked merrily._

_“But that was years ago!” Gray answered nearly outrageously._

_“Was it?”_

_“Yes!”_

_“Haha! My bad! It is just it didn’t seem to me that long you were two years old.”_

_“Daddy!”_

_The woman smiled warmly at their friendly banter and turned away, giving father and son some privacy she knew they needed at the moment._

_“But you know what?” she still heard her husband asking their child energetically._

_“What?”_

_“This time, I have a surprise for you! Since that day I asked your momma to teach me something and I have been practicing ever since, but I’m still not as good as you!”_

_“A surprise?”_

_“Yes!”_

_From the staircase, Mika listened to her husband singing, a little off key, but with all his emotions a song they have been working on for the past months with happy tears trailing down her pale cheeks and the happiest smile since their little fight years ago._

_Don’t smile for me_  
Because I know how hard it is for you  
You’re such a fool  
How can you leave if you’re so worried about me?

Silver pulled on her arm slightly, slowly shortening the distance between them. She wouldn’t turn to face him but that didn’t stop the man from putting his free hand on her shoulder, tears still streaming down his face and confusion but happiness in his eyes.

_Everything everywhere was in chaos. The ground trembled, houses shook and people desperately tried to find somewhere safe, be it inside their houses or somewhere out the town, but the search was futile. After all, how do you find a place safe enough with a giant demon destroying your town so effortlessly with a single breath?_

_Silver hurriedly pulled his eight-year-old son to a secret underground compartment in the living room and kneeled in front of him, heart constricted by the fear etched in his small face._

_“Dad! What is happening?”_

_“I need you to listen carefully to me, Gray” Silver said hurriedly grabbing the kid’s shoulders and locking his dark eyes with his son’s dark ones. “The whole town is under attack and it is a demon! A huge and very powerful demon, called Deliora.”_

_“But you can defeat it, right, dad? You are strong!”_

_The man shook his head with a grimace. “No, Gray. This demon is too powerful. Only powerful magic can defeat it and no one in our town deals with magic. So listen well now!” he continued quickly before the boy could say anything. “I need you to stay here. This place is safe, you’ll be okay here. Do not get out no matter what you hear outside, understand?”_

_“But, dad! What of you and mom?!”_

_“Don’t worry” he smiled sadly. “We will find another place that is safe. Don’t worry about us. Now, stay here and don’t get out. You understand?” Gray nodded with tears coming down his big eyes. “Good boy. Come here” they hugged and Silver kissed his forehead. “Always remember: your mom and I love you more than anything. Well meet soon.”_

_“I love you too, dad! You and mom!”_

_“I’ll tell her that. Now stay there quietly.”_

_Gray nodded again and sat down hugging his knees while his father closed the lid over his head so he was hidden and turned. Just outside their front door, Mika stared fearfully at the giant monster slowly approaching them. Silver grabbed her hand and they looked at each other._

_“He is safe. And told me to tell you he loves you.”_

_Hot tears pooled in her eyes before trailing down her cheeks. “My sweet baby!” she cried into her husband’s chest._

_“He is going to be okay, Mika. Remember, it’s our son we are talking about. That kid is strong” She said with a comforting hand on her head, but he was in as many tears as his wife._

_A bigger tremor not far away from the couple told them the monster was nearby and they didn’t have much time. They shared one last kiss and waited, knowing the demon would attack their way next. And it didn’t take long._

_Deliora shot a beam and the force of the wind it caused blew them away. They tried to hold onto the other but their hands slipped and each flew one way. Silver felt his body smash against crumbling walls and fall hard on the floor. Struggling to open his eyes, he tried to feel his wife anywhere nearby, already knowing the chances were the smallest. When the man managed to look around, he found Mika’s body sprawled among debris of stone, eyes wide open staring lifelessly into space and a forming river of blood running down on the paved floor._

_“No… MIKA!”_

_Silver’s shout was covered by Deliora’s next roar and attack, which sent another gush of wind around and lifted blocks of houses and brought down many others._

_My love is so cold_  
My heart is cold, you can’t leave  
If the good memories all freeze  
And if it can’t be erased, if it doesn’t melt, what do I do?

_Just turn around and go now_  
Because if you hesitate, I might hold onto you  
Don’t even brush past me, don’t run into me  
Because I might run to you and hug you

Gray finally turned her body to face the man but kept her face down, hair shadowing her eyes, but leaving enough of her face out for him to see the tears dropping from her chin onto the snow.

_Silver regained his conscience but everything was fuzzy. He felt his body was moving, but didn’t know how or why. The last thing he remembered was being hit by Deliora’s attack and there was no chance he could’ve survived that._

_A long time passed until he understood what was happening. He died but someone, a demon, another fucking demon resurrected him and was now using his body for the purposes of a magic guild made of demons._ Just how wonderful could life or post-life be?

_Little by little, he took control of his body and learned magic, specifically magic to kill demons: demon slaying magic. He became strong and rose into the ranks of the Dark Guild Tartaros, creating strange relationships with the demons he called colleagues. He earned the liberty to go around the world doing as he liked whenever not under direct orders from Mard Gear and killed as many demons as they crossed his path so long they were not directly associated with his guild. All that he did with only one thought in mind: eradicate the world of these foul creatures that caused him much pain and took his family away from him._

_I only hope and hope for you_  
Even if you know my heart, don’t come to me  
Even if I love you again  
Because I might give you pain, I might give you tears  
I’m afraid

_Your memories are colder_

At last, she looked up and they looked each other in the eyes, recognition passing in them before leaving to be filled with happiness and longing. They crashed into a tight hug. Silver held his son he thought he had lost twice now turned into a beautiful woman, as strange as that sounded, too happy to have his child in his arms again, face half-buried into her hair, smelling the same wintery perfume he always felt. Gray embraced the man she now knew was her father, the first man that meant something in her life, the man that had a huge role in the first part of her lost memory, him who brought with his presence eight years of her past life, feeling surprisingly secure in his arms even if she knew she was way more powerful than him.

In a miracle, father and child held each other in the middle of ruins in the middle of a snow covered place in the middle of winter. Two people that were supposed to be dead. And two people, that after losing their meaningful ones became masters of ice.


	5. Break Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we check how the guys in Fairy Tail are doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers, I'm terribly sorry for the long wait! And I didn't even have any excuse, I had this chapter completed and actually posted on ff.net long ago. I am really, really sorry!

**05 – Break Down** **_by Super Junior-M_ **

It was one of those nice days in the last week of the year in which things were surprisingly calm. Erza, who was happily enjoying a piece of strawberry cake, took a look around and watched the few members lingering in the guild hall. Most people were happily finishing their plans for the New Year and very few mages were left in the guild, not that she disliked the carefree and loud ruckus that usually marked their beloved guild, but some quiet was good now and then. Beside her, Kana was happy with a small barrel of beer and the whole Raijinshuu was also with them, enjoying their own drinks or desserts. There was only one, actually two things missing from that perfect image of traditional peace for the scarlet head, but she wasn't about to delve into it.

Out of the other few mages littering in the hall, Natsu and Lucy were the description of lovey-dovey and more than once Laxus and Bickslow made gagging noises behind their backs. The couple, since their public announcement of being official, has been very vocal and physical about it. When together, they could always be seen touching each other, be it hugging, cuddling, Lucy sitting on Natsu's lap or simply holding hands. Erza couldn't really complain, though. They were her friends and if they were happy, she was happy as well for them. Except maybe at the times Kana would get her staring and mock her saying she missed a blue-haired handsome friend of hers. Then the knight would proceed with blushing beet red and punch her oldest girl friend, because she deserves it.

With the hall quite silent compared to Fairy Tail normally, the knight couldn't help, and she guessed everybody else too, but hear the It Couple cuddling and Lucy talking animatedly about a week-long trip she and Natsu would be departing for the next day. Some of the other guys sitting around and even Kana often snickered and made friendly fun of them. Well, it wasn't like it was anyhow harmful.

"Seriously, though, it's more like an early honeymoon than anything else. Just marry already, you two!" Laxus kindly muttered loudly enough for the whole guild to hear. The comment caused a lot of laughter and a sputtering and blushing red Lucy trying to deny that, not being successful at all.

"Natsu! Say something!" the blonde turned to her boyfriend, who was merrily sipping his flame drink.

"What? It is kind of true. Happy is even staying with Wendy and Carla too" the dragon slayer said plainly and Lucy blushed at the laughter received from the others.

By the bar, no one paid much attention when Mirajane walked to the master with a stack of papers still laughing about her favorite couple. She handed them over to Master Makarov, who took them absentmindedly enjoying the peace among his children. Shaking his head to focus, he began reading. At first, he thought it was just another nominated request mission, only he frowned when read one of the names requested, probably this person didn't keep himself updated on most news of these parts of the continent. But as he read on, he suddenly blanched. This was not just another nominated request.

"Natsu! You have a mission!" the master yelled over the fun banter going around the guild, calling everyone to attention.

"What! No way, jii-chan! I'm going on a trip with Lucy. Why should I take it?" the young man practically whined turning to the older man.

Without raising his eyes from the papers, Makarov shook his head. "No, you must go now! And not fail!"

"Oh, come on! Why can't it even wait?" Natsu finally got up with Lucy and went to the master, getting curious despite his annoyance. There must be something if Master was being so adamant about this mission.

"This is an Emergency Request, Natsu. It is from Walrot Seeken" at the few blank looks he got, Makarov decided to add, "He is the 4th rank of the Ten Wizard Gods, one of Ishgal's Four Gods."

 _It was the highest request Fairy Tail has ever received!_ That is what everyone present was thinking.

Fully paying attention now, the fire dragon slayer stood beside the old man and read the request. He frowned as well after reading the other name written beside his, but focused on the actual mission. There wasn't much explanation, except that it was important they answered immediately and met with the Saint Mage at his home. With that in mind, Makarov all but pushed Natsu out of the door and was about to send him over in a vehicle when Lucy took her boyfriend by the arm and assured the master they were going to meet with Walrot Seeken immediately.

Many hours later, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Carla and Happy were standing in front of a rustic house, more likely a house grown out of a tree in the middle of nowhere, but a very beautiful and peaceful nowhere. Respectfully they entered it and were met by a room full of dormant flowers sitting in the half-shadow. At first sight, there didn't seem to have anybody besides them, but then a little shuffling was heard.

"Ahh, winter… Must you all really sleep for such a long time?" a deep and old voice sighed and a shadow moved around the flowers.

Keeping their silence, the young mages observed as the hidden figure moved for a bit anxiously until it became too much for the fire mage.

"Hey, I'm Natsu Dragneel and I'm here for a mission from a guy named Walrot Seeken. Where is he?" Natsu stepped ahead and ignored the whispered yells and complaints from his female partners about his rudeness.

There was a chuckle from the moving shadow before it rose. All mages saw though, was a silhouette of a tree wearing a robe. "Quite straightforward, are you" the figure said and finally turned to the young mages.

Light then filled into the place through windows on the walls and ceiling. The flowers, once dormant, bloomed and sparkled with life. And the man's face could at last be seen. He was a tree-person. Not any other way to describe him, that was a talking tree-guy. A weird talking tree-guy who approached Happy, who was standing a little ahead of Natsu, picked him up on his palms and said "Woah! You are a lot more cat-like than I thought!... Just kidding!"

That guy, Erza thought, was not for real.

Turns out, the tree-guy was Walrot Seeken and he had a very unique mission for the team. He wanted them to go to a place called The Village of the Sun and return it to normal, from its strangely frozen state. While he explained the origins of such state were unknown, the older mage made it clear it was no normal ice that covered the place and the inhabitants there were still alive, which was why this mission was so important.

"Now" Walrot said changing his tone to a less serious one, looking at all mages present, "where is Gray Fullbuster? I'm pretty sure I asked for him. I think he would be needed for this mission."

The brilliant and energetic mood involving the group instantly vanished and it was very clear for the elder how much his question, though genuine, affected his guests.

"He…" Lucy began, eyes down, but couldn't finish. It has been months since it happened, but the incident, the fact one of her closest friends was gone was still hard on her.

"Gray couldn't come" Erza replied then, voice firm but still saddened. "Some things happened a few months ago and he can't accompany us anymore."

Walrot understood what the scarlet warrior meant. For someone who was as old as he was, it didn't escape him that bad things could happen anytime with anybody, most of times because of a lack of attention and an unpredictable move. It was sad, but that was life. He knew it well.

"And still we are going to complete this mission!" Natsu stated confidently. The girls and Exceed nodded in agreement and the elder smiled at this boy's determination. It has been a while he had last seen someone quite this fiery.

"Alright, then! I'll help you guys reach this village. Get up and don't forget your luggage."

"How far is the village, Walrot-sama?" Wendy asked in her soft voice.

"Hmm, about 2000Km south from here, I'd say."

"That… is quite far…" the teenagers muttered, not liking the prospect of such a long walk.

"Do not worry. Just stand together." The younger mages did as told holding their luggage. "Now turn right." They did. "… That was a joke!"

"Hey!"

The elder started to chant in an old language and soon a sprout grew under their feet and kept growing at a very high speed. Soon, the team was sitting on the leaves of a twisting and growing gigantic tree flying through the sky. It was a onetime joy.

"He was humble… but he was really something. Magic that can control nature…" Erza thought out loud remembering the older man saying he could probably be taken down by a group of young mages. She highly doubted that.

In no time at all, they reached the outskirts of the Village of the Sun, landing in the woods. Looking around, everything seemed normal. All plant life was as it should be, slightly brownish yellow with few leaves ready to fall. It all was half dormant in the midst of winter as what was expected of it.

Walking further towards the village, a flash of red caught the corner of their sight. Moving quickly, Natsu and Erza had a surprised and struggling Flare Corona in their hands. The girl squirmed in their grasp, but didn't struggle violently, only uncomfortably.

"Wait! Wait!" Lucy panicked seeing the shy red head, not at her presence, but at what her friends could possibly do. She knew that girl wasn't as bad as she made it look at the Grand Magic Mages. "Please, don't hurt her!"

"What do you mean, Lucy?" Natsu asked suspiciously, slightly tightening his hold on his former enemy's arm. "She's from Raven Tail. You remember what she did to you! That she almost hurt Asuka-chan!"

"Yes, I know! But she's not bad!" Lucy was exasperated at her friends.

"Explain" Erza demanded piercing the other red head with a glare.

Flare muttered something inaudible before speaking out loud but still shyly and quietly. "I'm sorry for what I did to you and your guild. I didn't know any better… and thought it was normal to hate Fairy Tail. Sorry."

"Please, guys. Let her go" the blonde asked softly. Her friends still eyed Flare suspiciously, but let her go. "So what are you doing here, Flare?"

"I live here" she answered timidly, looking to the side. "I mean, this village is actually my home, where I was raised. I came here just now and… It just…" she paused and the Fairy Tail members felt sorry for her. To suddenly come home and find it destroyed was not something they wished upon anyone, after all, they have lived through it before. Not nice.

"It had just defrosted! You guys caught me by surprise" she exclaimed happily.

Team Natsu stared at her blankly. Was that for real? The Village of the Sun was back to normal? Their mission had been completed before they could? But Walrot-sama said it was very difficult to happen. Just who did it? And how?

Nearly forgetting about Flare, the team ran the rest of the way wanting, needing to see for themselves, and stopped at the entrance of the village. It was true! Everything was back to normal, never mind normal was of gigantic proportions. Not a single part of the place held indications of being ever frozen. Shock and confusion filled them, but not as much as the next moment.

An explosion called their attention to a cloud of smoke and dirt.

"It came from the Altar of the Ever Burning Flame!" Flare gasped and soon they all were running in that direction.

There they found something never before contemplated as real. In front of a very, very big, humongous, mountain-like flame, were giants, giants standing in offensive poses surrounding a fight, one that was between a gigantic man and an average sized woman, a woman they knew by the name of Minerva Orland, former member of Sabertooth.

"Minerva!"

At Erza's shout, all stopped. The fighters held their attacks and everybody turned to the newly arrived group, just then noticing them. Minerva, who was panting and sweating, glared at the knight, hatred evident on her eyes.

"Titania!" she growled and stood up, facing the red head, but still minding the big men around. "What an interesting encounter. And to think not an hour ago someone did mention I should look for you to fight."

Erza glared hard at the dark haired, ignoring completely the other people around. "What are you doing here? After the Grand Magic Games you disappeared. What happened?"

"Huh" the other woman sneered. "Like it is any of your business. What I do is my problem. Don't interfere in my life! Now, why don't you fight me! I've been waiting for my revenge for the humiliation you put me through!"

"Don't be such a fool, Minerva! There is nothing down the path of revenge. Just let it be and go back to Sabertooth. Sting and Rogue are looking for you."

"Don't give me that. I know they all hate me."

"That isn't true and you know it. But if you insist, I will knock some sense into your head!" that said, she changed into her Purgatory Armor.

The next second had both mages locked in a fight similar to the one of the Grand Magic Games, just as fierce, explosive and deadly. The other Fairy Tail members watched the battle, itching to help their friend, but knowing, respecting it was something to be dealt between them.

Lucy, knowing there was nothing she could do to help, turned to the giants intent on discovering what happened to the village for it to be frozen and then defrosted. And just then, she realized what the situation she was in actually meant. She and her friends had just entered a village they were supposed to melt, only to find it already free of any ice, with a former enemy fighting a friend of hers and to top it all, surrounded by the inhabitants of said village, who were simple giants. Giants, like, really, really big men that could squash them like insects any time if they so much as wanted or were careless.

"Excuse me, sir" the blonde called the big man and she suddenly felt a shiver go down her spine in fright. The giants focused their attention on her, slight frowns on their full faces. "Uhm… could you, please…" she stammered, "tell us what happened here? How… how you were frozen and then how everything was melt?" she asked tentatively, trembling in nervousness, inching slowly towards Natsu and hiding behind him, bringing Flare with her, who was already hiding behind the blonde.

"Huh? Ah…" the big men looked at each other confused. "We can't remember."

"What do you mean you can't remember?" Natsu inquired indignantly.

"Well, I remember there was a little man…" one began uncertainly and another continued the broken sentences.

"He was after our sacred flame, thinking it was a demon or something…"

"And then nothing…"

"And we woke up to her raging about infuriating girls and fairies" another giant finished pointing at the two women fighting.

Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Happy, Carla and Flare turned to stare at the brawling females and then turned back to the giants, predicting a long battle between them, one they didn't want to be involved in.

"I guess there isn't much we can do" Wendy commented softly.

The others agreed, surprisingly the villagers also brushed it off as normal and focused on one thing that have been pulling their beards since these small people arrived.

"So you have come back, Flare."

That sentence, said so seriously, snapped the mages to attention. Flare flinched behind Lucy and the other mages started to doubt whether or not it was a good thing to have practically dragged the red head with them.

"Yes..." she muttered almost inaudibly.

The giants growled and came closer to her. The one that looked like the elder of the villagers picked her up and held her on the palm of his hand, closer to their eyes.

"So, how was the outside world?"

Flare snapped up, surprised by the question asked in a gentle voice. The mages of Fairy Tail also were surprised, but grins slowly grew on their faces. That tough face was only an act. The big men grinned and smiled at her. Thick tears appeared in the girl's bright eyes and her smile was the brightest Lucy had ever seen.

"It was f-fun... But also hard" she hiccupped.

"That's the same wherever you go as long as you're alive. No matter if you leave or stay, this is your home. You can do as you please."

"Yes" another man commented. "Well... Just wanted to tell you something..."

"Welcome back, daughter!"

"I'm home!"

It didn't take long for them to start preparing a party to celebrate the return of their long lost girl and as usual of Fairy Tail, the mages joined in as well, ignoring the fight still going on some meters from them.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Erza and Minerva were going all out. To every blast the dark woman shot, the red head countered with a slash of her blades. The battle went on, each spending more and more of their magic power to the point the women resorted to bare fist fight. At first look, it seemed they were evenly matched, but upon closer inspection, it became clear Erza had the upper hand and was holding back.

"Stop this stupidity, Minerva!" Titania yelled as she landed a punch on the other's cheek and sent her flying towards a wall of rocks. Panting, she walked to her fallen opponent and squatted down beside her, pulling her by the dark robes. "You don't want to fight. So why do you fight?"

"Don't…" Minerva muttered, body limp, allowing Erza to do whatever she wanted with her. She was tired of this life, of what she's been doing, of what she's been through, she was just tired. "Don't pity me."

"I am not" Erza answered her softly. "You are lost. You are sealing yourself away from the world. Stop it."

"What is the meaning of living if I am not even strong enough to face reality…"

Minerva's response was so soft spoken, the red head couldn't help but soften her eyes and say gently back.

"Strength is not something to be built alone. The only reason I am strong is because I have friends, I have my family to support me. You do too. Isn't Sabertooth your family? Sting, Rogue, Lector, Frosch, Yukino… everyone of Sabertooth are looking for you. They are waiting to have you with them again."

"You lie."

"See for yourself" they became silent and Erza released the other and rose.

Minerva sighed. Could it be, really, that someone, her former guild mates cared about her? Unlikely. She did badly to them, all the humiliation she inflicted upon them for all the years they spent together, the last Games topped everything. She went as far as hold Lector hostage in her space to spook Sting into battle. All her life, her father, that horrible, merciless man trained her to be the strongest. The weak have no place in the world.

And yet, there was a small part, locked away by years of cruelty she kept cultivating while with her guild mates. That part that wished for the same kind of relationship Fairy Tail had. The contained part of her being that loved to be with those stupid boys of hers, those two dragon slayers that acted tough and would turn into puddles of goose when atop any means of transportation. Those oafs, one worse than the other in their craziness. Craziness that made life worth living.

Slowly she got up to her feet, fists closed tight. Her dark brown eyes locked with the red head's, they were serious, determined and held a whole new meaning, taking her opponent by surprise.

"Fight me again, Erza. This time, for real."

Erza smiled. She wasn't used to this kind of change of heart after fighting, that was Gray's expertise; he was the one who changed Ultear's, Juvia's and Lyon's view of the world. "With pleasure!" she changed to her Fairy Armor and once more they were engulfed in another fight, this one a fight worth of Fairy Tail, much like their free-for-all daily brawls.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Both mages lay on the grass panting. After nearly an hour of fighting, their magic was exhausted and they could hardly move. Somewhere back in the Village of the Sun, a party was going on for Flare being reunited with her big –BIG- family. Tired, sweaty, dirty and sporting many wounds, Erza and Minerva had content smiles.

"What you said before…" Minerva started after regaining her breath, "that was from experience, wasn't it?"

Erza laughed. "Heh. Yeah. It happened shortly after I joined Fairy Tail. Someone… my first friend there reached me through my armors. He even… He even dedicated me a song all to myself."

"Oh. Icy Fairy, huh? It's a shame what happened to him."

"Yeah" the red head commented smiling nostalgically. "I didn't portray you as the music type."

"I quite liked some of his songs."

"Really?"

"Sometimes I got the feeling they were mocking or attacking your Salamander."

Both laughed at that. Erza couldn't help but agree, some of his songs were direct emotional attacks to that silly boy. She remembered an evening when a brave and brash young ice mage with stripping tendencies approached her, still sporting some wounds from their last "conversation" and convinced her to open up the armor around her heart and believe there were people she could trust to be a part of her life. And of course, that wonderful day on her 6th anniversary of joining Fairy Tail.

**X782 – Magnolia, Fiore**

Fairy Tail was, once again, partying. Music blasted merrily in the halls, drinks flew everywhere and there was a mountain of gifts pilling behind a huge strawberry cake at a safe corner. And Erza looked around with eyes glistering and a face splitting smile. A flag reading 'Happy 6th Anniversary – Erza Scarlet' was proudly hanging above their heads.

Today was the day that marked the sixth year of her being a Fairy Tail mage. And she couldn't help her first moments in this wonderful guild from coming to the forefront of her mind. Those were very touching days indeed. She remembers how closed off to the whole guild she was, how she avoided contact with everyone and everyone let her be, that is everybody but one stubborn dark-haired boy with the worst habit of stripping at any given moment, who wouldn't let her be alone no matter what to the point of being beaten up repeatedly.

"Hey, Erza!" the red haired turned to see her first and oldest friend of Fairy Tail.

"Hi, Gray" she greeted and rose an eyebrow. The ice mage was nervous and she hadn't the tiniest idea of why. He definitely was avoiding looking into her eyes and one hand refused to come into view, not to mention the slight blush tinting his usually pale cheeks.

"Is something wrong, Gray?"

"No, nothing's wrong" he answered a little too quickly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure" then he took in a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. "Here" he finally brought his left hand in front of his body and offered a box, a little bigger than his hand, wrapped in white paper with red and light blue stars all over it. "Happy anniversary, Erza" he said with, in Erza's opinion, the cutest smile and blush she had seen on his face ever.

"He liiikes her" Happy dropped out of nowhere beside them along with Natsu and Lisanna. To their other side, Kana and Loke were grinning like mad people, barely stopping their snickering. Somewhere behind Erza and Lisanna, Mirajane was laughing uncontrollably at her rival's flushed face.

"Shut up, you fucking cat! It's not like that!" Gray yelled at the top of his lungs, ears beat red. Frowning with a cute pout and again avoiding looking into Erza's brown eyes, he said, "This gift is a little piece of our relationship; because you are my dear sister and I can't help but to love you that much. And I didn't know how else to express it."

The knight accepted her gift and without opening it, threw her at him, wrapping him in a bone crushing hug, literally.

After a little struggle to get the female warrior away from Gray, she opened the box and pulled out a miniature lacrima she instantly recognized as a video recording and just knew it was a new song of her favorite artist. Without looking at it, the red-head turned to her first Fairy friend with a huge smile and demanded, "I want a live performance."

A couple seconds tickled by before the ice mage reacted. "Hey! Don't push your rights as sister!" he exclaimed with his face ablaze.

"Not even if we pay you for it?"

Gray crossed his arms and looked at her in a no nonsense way. "You know very well that I am not bought by money."

"Not even if it is an official request?" Master Makarov approached them with a request paper in hand and handing it to the raven haired boy. It was a request by all rights with the specific description and reward included.

"You guys planned it" he stated to their faces only to receive mischievous grins. Rolling his eyes, Gray took the paper and started to the center of the hall. "One song! And if I catch anyone trying to record it, I'll sue you!"

On cue, the gathered mages gave their resident idol space and waited expectantly. Gray then did the few hand signs and invoked his whole stage persona, including the ice floor, ice dancers and the minimal changes of his looks. Now, with his hair thrown back with silver tips, glittering light blue eyes with magic and dark shadows contouring and slanting said eyes and lipstick he, to this day, doesn't know why still agrees to use, the ice mage gave Erza a lopsided smile and bowed.

"A special gift for the great Titania, Queen of Fairies, and my beloved, slightly scary, sister."

Light melody started from the floor as the ice covering the hall played with the lights overhead and created nice shadows to dance on people's skin. Gray's clones took shape and color and in no time, the young idol had his whole audience transfixed in him.

_This isn't like me, I can't calm down at all_ __  
_Passersbys can see I have a special anticipation for you_  
_I've lost control, what do I do? I'm almost unable to leave_  
_Yeah. Our conversation's completely ordinary_  
_Why is my heart beating exceptionally fast?_  
_Each and every movement, in your presence, is so easily seen through_  
_Because I've gotten lost in your eyes_

_For you my armed heart breaks down_ __  
_What's left is my bare confession, my defenseless love_  
_I need to be selflessly brave, block rumors_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

_For you my emotionless mask breaks down_ __  
_All of my expressions have revealed my adoration for you_  
_Even if I get hurt, I won't feel regret, I just want you to rely on me_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

Listening to the lyrics sang to her, specifically to her, Erza couldn't help but think that somehow, her dearest friend read her mind and her heart. It was strange, she thought, that Gray could match his feelings with hers without, possibly, even knowing what he was doing. She knew for a fact, he always sang with his heart, especially when dedicating a piece to somebody, but right now, it was most intriguing that with a little wordplay, he could bring forth her own heart, a heart she had buried beneath layers of armor and he, selflessly, fought to uncover and bring out from the darkness while still having the heavy burden of his own to support.

_Along the way I remove my armor, running faster with all my might_ __  
_I catch up to you, protecting you so you won't get hurt_  
_Even if I get covered in bruises, it doesn't matter to me, it's all for you_  
_Oh yeah, oh yeah_

_Perhaps you think I'm too crazy (Yeah, you can call me crazy)_ __  
_Actually, I think so too (but I can't stop loving you)_  
_Love is like an intoxicating melody_

_For you my armed heart breaks down_ __  
_What's left is my bare confession, my defenseless love_  
_I need to be selfless brave, block rumors_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

_For you my emotionless masks break down_ __  
_All of my expressions have revealed my adoration for you_  
_Even if I get hurt, I won't feel regret, I just want you to rely on me_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

_It's like I've almost found myself again, but failed once more_ __  
_Again you're breaking me down, breaking me down_  
_How many times have I already gone far away, but come back again_  
_Love's always breaking me down, breaking me down_

_For you my armed heart breaks down_ __  
_What's left is my bare confessions, my defenseless love_  
_I need to be selfless brave, block rumors_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

_For you my emotionless mask breaks down_ __  
_All of my expressions have revealed my adoration for you_  
_Even if I get hurt, I won't feel regret, I just want you to rely on me_  
_So baby, let's go, go, go, go, go_

_The way out already has completely broken down_ __  
_Like falling to ruins, Break Down_  
_Loving you makes me completely break down_

Erza didn't wait a split second after she knew Gray had finished and flung herself on her friend, subconsciously casting away her armor, and tackling him to the ground, making the ice around them shatter into snowflakes.

Groaning, the ice mage massaged the back of his head where he hit the floor and looked down at the scarlet head burying her face into his chest. "Erza?"

She tightened her grip around his torso, nearly breaking his ribs and choking him, before answering against his clothes, so softly only the raven head heard her. "Thank you. Thank you so much for being in my life."

Smiling at his honored sister, Gray patted her fiery hair. "You're welcome. But could you let go? I don't think I'll last long if you continue crashing my ribs like this."

Instantly, Erza let go and held him at arms' length, eyes wide open in surprise while her honored brother slumped backwards half dead with his spirit nearly leaving his body through his mouth. "Ahh! Gray! I'm sorry!"

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Sitting over a hill a few kilometers away from the ruins of their hometown, Gray and Silver spent the last few hours cuddling, joking and updating each other on how their lives have been planned for the near future. At first, the demon slayer was understandably surprised his son, now daughter stood toe to toe against Zeref, then he got a little demonstration of her current strength and let the subject rest. On the other hand, Gray listened intently to her father's report on the plans and actions of his current guild, Tartaros, and the man could already see the gears working in her mind through her eyes.

"You know, Gray, since you were little, whenever you got an idea in that head of yours you got this look that just screams 'thought process – do not disturb'" Silver commented and his younger companion blinked owlish at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah" he laughed, then turned serious. "So, what were you working on?"

Gray eyed him for a few more seconds before grinning. "What do you say for a Coup d'état?"

"Come again?"

"I'm already in a declared war with Zeref, so taking out his little demons wouldn't be that much trouble, really, specially taking your type of magic and mine. So we could probably hit two birds with one stone: stop the demons, saving people in the process, and bring him back into the scene again. After all, there is a possibility that he'd show up if his creations were attacked and destroyed."

"I sense a 'but' there" Silver said but he already knew what his companion was getting at.

Gray sighed welcoming the arm her father put around her shoulders bringing them into a side hug. "I don't want to part with you so soon. Since I woke up, technically three months ago, but not more than a week for me, you're the first person I connected with. Besides, you're my father."

"And yet you know what is the right thing to do and will do it in due time" the man smiled at his child, feeling like the proudest father in the world. The younger mage nodded and looked at her father with hesitation showing in her eyes.

"I could always keep you alive myself, but I don't think either of us would want that even if I'd love to have you around forever."

The man turned them so that Gray was looking straight into his eyes and saw all the feelings he had for her at that moment. "You know that no matter what, I will always love you unconditionally, and you also know that my time among the living is already past and my place is with the dead, beside your mother, looking out for you from beyond. Gray, my child, I can't say how proud I am of you. You are an even greater person than I could ever have hoped for. You mother is also the proudest and we couldn't have asked for a better child. Now you go and live on, only, this time try not to play any disappearing trick."

The young woman gave him a lopsided smile and hugged him around the neck, feeling more comforted than she imagined possible by his strong arms around her, protecting her from life. She nodded into his shoulder, leaning on him.

"Do you mind waiting this night before going demon hunting?" Gray asked nearly lazily accommodating herself on him. Her father chuckled and complied, hugging her closer, but there was something he had to remind her.

"We should at least make sure they haven't moved into the next phase of the plan yet. You know, the one in which we kill all the Council members."

"Do you think they are already at it?"

"Last time I checked, most of the dark guilds under us were already dealt with. Knowing Kyouka, she is probably done."

"Hmm" the female hummed with closed eyes, enjoying a little too much her position half draped over her father's lap. "What if we send somebody to check for any demon on the loose? Then, first thing in the morning tomorrow we go kick that weirdo Mard Geer's ass."

"How do you know he is a weirdo?"

"Your memories" then silently, the younger mage simply pulled out two silver keys from under her coat.

"Celestial Spirits? But none of us is-"

"Open, High Gates of the Hunter and Huntress!" she nearly sang the chant out, cutting her father off. From the bright light of the summoning, two figures appeared kneeling beside the pair.

"-a celestial mage… Isn't Celestial Magic a specific locked type of magic?"

Gray chuckled. "Not really. Anybody can be a celestial mage if they know a bit about this magic. And I suppose you could say I know a little about it" she then turned to the two bowing spirits and motioned for them to get up. "I don't like you guys kneeling to me, you know it. But I need a little favor from you two."

"Anything, Mistress" they answered together, still kneeling, but now more relaxed and looking directly to her.

"Can you recognize a demon's presence signature from afar?" she asked them seriously.

"Certainly, Mistress" Bellatrix answered in her no nonsense voice. She blinked then trained her eyes directly on Silver's entire form, already not liking much their close proximity. Her partner wasn't much different, Orion also had a pose ready to strike to kill the unknown creature beside their master. Both were paying close attention to the slightest sign their mage could be in danger.

"You know this man is not human and is under control of a demon, yes?" the hunter asked the young mage.

"I know, he's with me" she answered and the spirits nodded, relaxing their postures even more and waited in silence for their order. "There is a concentration of demons somewhere in the continent and I plan to go there with him, my dad. I need you two to hunt and exterminate any other demon on the loose that have the same demonic signature."

"Immediately, Mistress!" then they disappeared in flashes.

"Those are some handy friends you have over there" Silver commented, still wrapping his mind around the fact his kid, who was a known ice mage, had full access to nearly any kind of magic known and unknown to men.

"I have contracts with another seven high spirits. They are all very loyal and fun. And very good company too."

Silver nodded. "I believe you, but are you sure those two are enough? With your current magic power I don't think it would cause you a strain to call some more spirits. You know, the Kyuukimon aren't weak. And it is probably Jackal and Tempester that will go after our targets."

"No worries. Their magic is connected to mine, so as long as my magic doesn't run out, they'll be able to use their full force, and that's quite a lot. Not to mention now they are linked with me, my magic influence on theirs, so they are actually stronger now. They could kill you easily, if that eases your mind" Gray deadpanned and Silver laughed. Trust his child to make morbid comments like they were talking about the weather!

With one less problem to worry, Silver set to enjoy a few more hours with his lost child until they'd have to part definitely.

 


	6. Bang Bang Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we wrap a whole long arc in a chapter

**06 – Bang Bang Bang _by BigBang_**

Doranbolt sighed from his place at the door outside of the Council Meeting Hall beside Lahal and overhearing the talk going on inside. Currently, the members were, again, complaining about Fairy Tail. His friend shot him a look that clearly said ‘And you still like them’, and all he could do was sigh again. In this position there wasn’t much he could do, if anything at all to defend the guild... It was nearly impossible with how exuberant they were. And if rumors were right, Natsu Dragneel now was an S-class mage... Really troublesome.

“Silence, everyone!” Chairman Grand Doma’s voice suddenly rang through the halls and silenced all murmuring. “Our topic of conversation today is Tartaros. As you are all aware, guilds thought to be affiliated with Tartaros have all been wiped out in the past seven days. We have yet to identify those responsible... And we are both thankful and worried by this.”

“If this was the work of an official guild, we would have to worry about a possible retaliation...” one of the members commented worriedly.

“What about that... Independent guild...” the small man beside him suggested.

“Crime Sorciere?! Hm... They’re a definite possibility...”

“This reeks of something Fairy Tail cooked up again!” the old woman commented, mind set it was that guild’s fault.

“Perhaps with great power comes the desire to show off.”

“I think it would be unfair to pin everything to Fairy Tail” the old man with a black bird on his head argued.

“Org-roshi always tends to take Fairy Tail’s side on such matters.”

“This is just a hypothesis... But what if the perpetrators were Tartaros themselves...?” Org-roshi added seriously. As strange as a thesis it was, it could be a possibility.”

“Why would they do such a thing?”

“Who knows. However, there are grounds to believe it could be to strengthen their forces while simultaneously cutting off superfluous weeds.”

There was a moment of silence in which the members looked at each other thinking about it. Then, they all burst in laughter except for Org and Grand Doma. It was such an impossible idea, too good and bad at the same time it just couldn’t be true. And not only that, it was bad enough it was ridiculously funny

“Dark guild taking each other out?”

“That’s impossible!”

“Tartaros should already have all the forces they need...”

“Org-roshi, maybe you are getting senile in your old age?”

“Well, Org-roshi’s theory is a plausible one” the chairman commented calmly when the others calmed down a little, drawing attention and surprised gasps from his colleagues.

“Chairman!!”

“Now is the time for us to deal with Tartaros after turning a blind eye on them for so long. The true form of our enemy remains unknown. But if we were to fall apart here, the Balam Alliance would surely follow. Now is the time in which we as the council must take up our strongest arms and make our stand” Grand Doma said dead serious, showing the others just how crucial a matter this had become. The members gulped in nervousness, some even sweating cold.

“I-it’s terrible!!”

The chamber doors burst open suddenly by a frog guard, breaking the tense atmosphere set among the council members.

“What!!”

“Fool! We are in the middle of a meeting here!” one the men shouted back in anger at being disrupted at such an important moment, but the guard had other matters in mind that were more critical than a lecture from the council.

“N-now’s not the time for that!” the frog guard yelled desperately. “Intruders have-!”

Then a loud crash was heard from the table the Council was around and it broke under the weight and force of the figures that suddenly appeared there. As the surprise passed and dust cleared, they could see two hunter-like people with their weapons, a sword for the male and a spear for the female, piercing down a humanoid feline creature.

“W-what is the meaning of this?!”

“Seems we reached it at the same time, Bella” the hunter commented without taking his eyes from their prey.

“So it does” the huntress answered and twisted her weapon, making the creature gasp.

“What the fuck are you two!?” the feline gasped, trying to yell at his attackers, but in his current position, it wasn’t effective at all.

“What kind of people are you?” an old woman of the council muttered clinging to the chair she previously occupied.

“People?” Orion asked. He, too, inflicted more damage to the weird man at their feet and finally shot a side glance at the mages littering around. “Do not mistake us for humans. We are High Celestial Spirits and our Mistress has asked us to take down these demons from the Gates of Hell.”

“Celestial spirits?”

They didn’t give their audience any more attention and proceed with their directory. Yanking respective blades back, they coated it with specific hunting magic of similar properties of slaying magic directed for demons of all kind and a little of their Mistress’ and slashed the feline demon clean. Its body didn’t last a second before quickly deteriorating and turning into dust. It was quite the gruesome sight.

Before any of the Council members could utter a word, the pair of celestial spirits vanished in thin air leaving behind the dusty remains of a demon and a little mess of a broken table.

From the door, the frog staff, Lahal and Doranbolt stared incredulous just as the others at what happened. Was that right? Was there a celestial mage strong enough to be able to send two spirits into Era, into the heavily guarded by people and magic runes Parliament of Magic Congress? And if so, what kind of power did this person, a female mage from what the hunters called their master, possess? How much a threat could it be? And most importantly, who was she! The only known celestial mages of actuality were Fairy Tail’s Lucy Heartfilia and Sabertooth’s Yukino Agria. Could it be one of them did this?

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

It was late morning when Team Natsu returned home from their most unusual mission. They wanted to talk with Master about their findings, that there was, possibly, a mage strong enough to freeze a whole village easily and by mistake and another with just as much power to defrost it instantaneously. Of them all, Erza and Carla were the ones most concerned about it. Lucy had her own worries too, but she opted to leave these matters to people that were better capable of doing something about them, she just knew as much as she was concerned, it was not her place.

When they opened the guild doors, it was a surprise to find the few mages that remained in Magnolia gathered around a table where Master Makarov and former council member Yajima were talking with a serious mood around them all.

Lisanna was the first to notice them and greet them, bringing everyone’s attention to the just returned group. Makarov, still serious, asked them about the mission and Erza answered him truthfully. There wasn’t a thing they actually did that concerned the request. Things were already solved when they arrived and the only thing that happened was Erza fighting with Minerva and said mage returning home to Sabertooth. Really nothing.

The older man massaged his temples and groaning at his increasing headache. Just as his old friend delivered such a bad news, his children came with another one just as worrisome.

Deciding to move on to the present matter at discussion before her team came, the Knight asked the gathered mages, “And what were you discussing? It seems pretty serious.”

“And it is” Freed answered her. “Yajima-san was attacked yesterday.”

Understandably Team Natsu gasped at the news. It wasn’t that unfathomable there were people brave or stupid enough to attack a council member, former or current. What was strange was said attacked person to come to their guild the very next day and looking unscathed, and so Lucy voiced.

“I agree with you, young lady” Yajima said in his calm yet worried voice. “The problem rests with how things occurred.”

“And how is that?” Carla, ever blunt, asked immediately.

“The moment my wannabe attacker stepped into my restaurant, he was killed by two very strong celestial spirits” he told them and all eyes went to Lucy, who took a couple of seconds to process people were connecting the spirits with her and she had nothing to do with it.

“Wait! I don’t know what happened! I was with Natsu and Erza and the others at the mission! There was no way I could send my spirits that far away from me!”

Makarov grunted with a nod, already having thought of that. “The chances Saber’s celestial mage did this are slim too. Yajima-san, don’t you remember what those Spirits looked like? Maybe Lucy or Loke could recognize them and lead us to their owner.”

“Uhm…”

While the old man thought back into his memory, Lucy called Loke and gave him a quick briefing of the situation. The lion spirit understood the gravity of things right away and waited patiently for the former council member.

“I guess the best way to describe them is they are hunters, a couple. They looked rough, nearly barbarians. The male had a sword and shield and the female had a spear” the description was simple and short, but it didn’t take more than the words ‘hunters’ and ‘barbarians’ for Loke to know exactly who they were talking about.

“They were working together, you say?” the ginger head asked with a slightly shaken voice.

“Yes, very well too, like they were used to it” Yajima nodded and he, along with all Fairy Tail mages turned curiously to Loke’s nervousness.

“Hehe” his chuckle gave no space for any other interpretations other than there was big trouble coming. “Those were Orion and Bellatrix.”

“Orion? That’s the Hunter constellation, right?” Lucy asked surprised. “I heard it is incredible hard to get a hold of a key of that constellation.”

“If only it were as simple” Loke muttered. He adjusted his glasses before looking at his friends dead serious. “We aren’t dealing with an ordinary celestial mage. Whoever this is, they invoked two High Spirits.”

“What?!” Lucy shrieked. It was… incredible. Her mother had spoken once about High Celestial Spirits to her and one thing she remembers quite clearly is that they are nearly impossible to find.

“Does anybody care to explain what the meaning of that is?” Kana inquired annoyed. “If you don’t remember, not everybody knows the secrets of Celestial Magic here.”

“Sorry, Kana” the Spirit said and took a seat across from Master and Yajima. “High Celestial Spirits are the strongest and highest ranked spirits of each constellation besides the 12 Zodiac. You could call them the ‘Leaders’ of each constellation. There is usually only one High Spirit per constellation, but a few, like the Hunter, have two. “

“But how do you know for sure it is them? Couldn’t it be any other Spirit of the same constellation?” Erza asked logically. After all, they have seen it themselves there were bunches of spirits that looked alike even if different, but the information they had was quite generic.

Loke shook his head. “They are very distinct. For one, their feel is different. I don’t know how to explain, it just is. And the ordinary spirits, those from simple silver keys, they look generically more like modern hunters with fire arms or at least looks. Orion and Bellatrix… Their very presence demands attention and respect. And unless ordered, they don’t work together. They are very competitive. Worse than Natsu and Gray.”

Audible nervous swallows were heard among the group. That wasn’t a very nice prospect. If Loke was to be believed, those Spirits were not only strong on their own, but hard to control and if their mage could put them to work together it meant whoever it was, the mage was crazy strong.

“Isn’t there anyway to find who owns their keys?” Mirajane wondered out loud.

Lucy turned uncertain eyes to her spirit. “Maybe Crux could find out?” she tested.

“Possibly” Leo nodded and the girl proceed to call the silver key spirit. After relaying the request, the cross shaped creature started his search.

“He fell asleep!”

“He’s searching…”

It wasn’t long before the creature awoke and had a grave expression. News were not good. “The current holder of the High Hunters’ keys is new and too cherished by her spirits for them to reveal her identity.” There were gasps from the mages, Lucy’s and Loke’s the most surprised. It was not common for information to be withheld from Crux. In fact, in Leo’s long existence, it had only occurred twice and there were when magic was still new. “What I can tell you is that she has been welcomed in the Celestial World by the King personally and has nine High Spirits, including the High Hunters, with her and is capable of more than celestial magic, much more.”

With that, he returned home and left a very bad feeling at the mages’ guts.

Later in the evening, the ruckus quieted down some and Lucy returned home mind set on resting from this stressful day. With Plue keeping her company, she took a bath, plopped down on her bed and fished a CLD-player from her drawer and put on the earphones. As music started to play, her mind drifted from the problems of the day and went on to the people singing in her ears right now.

She understood what Natsu said and then later Erza and Kana confirmed that Fairy Tail mages often were featured in her idol’s songs, but to this day, she couldn’t believe the Raijinshuu and, specially, of all people, Laxus did too. It was just… No. Laxus’ image didn’t allow him to do it. And certainly not the song playing right now, one she started to sing along.

 _I awake with the black night_  
Everyone come in, whose turn is next?  
It’s an unpredictable crazy guerilla  
Bow down in worship until your voice explodes

She’s heard the song a few times after discovering who were participating in it, and found it hard to imagine her guild mates had this much talent, but then again, with a genius like Icy Fairy to help, even Natsu could become a good singer… Probably… Maybe. The one thing she just could get a grip on, though, was how their performance went, because Icy Fairy always, only debuted a new song in a show of some kind. And it was definitely hard to imagine Freed interpreting the first lines and even worse to figure how Laxus agree to DANCE and sing, ok, rap the following ones!

 _Switch up this looser atmosphere_  
So they can’t hide this insanity  
The dignity of men, the pretense of women  
It’s interesting to see this kind of unknown confidence  
As if I’m showing off, I shamelessly dig into your body like an allergy  
Swarming around in a strange mind  
Today, this place is lawless

The sudden change from Laxus’ deep voice to Evergreen’s lively and light one was quite the break and somehow it came out so well. She envied them so much at this very moment.

 _I’ll set this place on fire to burn your heart_  
I wanna make you go crazy  
B.I.G. Yea, we bang like this, everyone together

And then, there he was, the main star. Her idol was a chameleon, he had to be. His voice in this song was just so different from others like the one that became Fairy Tail’s unofficial theme, _Hurricane_ , and even more from the one he did in his female persona, _Ice Flower_. It was just a wonder how much talent one person had to have to be able to do it all.

_Like you’ve been shot_

_BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!_  
Bang! Bang! Bang!  
BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!  
Bang! Bang! Bang!

 _Nobody moves, nobody moves_  
Nobody moves, nobody moves  
Let’s see the end of this night, see the end  
Let’s see the end of this night  
Bang! Bang! Bang!

The moment she found out this part was sang by the one and only Bickslow, her jaw dropped. It was just so out of character and yet she could just picture him doing it, it was surreal!

 _I’ll take you away right now_  
When the red sky dances  
We’re spinning and spinning, you and I, this place is Valhalla  
Give praise and spread it out louder

 _We go hard, we’re the night’s watchmen, run all night with space magic_  
This song is the apex, it’s so fun, sing about the wonders  
Loud screams are devilish melodies, the connection to a black poison  
All around you, get high and release the reins, woo

 _I’ll set this place on fire to burn your heart_  
I wanna make you go crazy  
B.I.G. Yea, we bang like this, everyone together

_Like you’ve been shot_

_BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!_  
Bang! Bang! Bang!  
BANG BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!  
Bang! Bang! Bang!

 _Nobody moves, nobody moves_  
Nobody moves, nobody moves  
Let’s see the end of this night, see the end  
Let’s see the end of this night  
Bang! Bang! Bang!

_Ready or not, Yea, we don’t give a what  
Ready or not, Yea, we don’t give a what_

And finally, somehow, all their different tunes harmonized so well and the ending! What wouldn’t Lucy give to have an opportunity like this to share a stage with him…

 _Let’s go, guys on the top, girls get low_  
Pull the trigger, bang bang bang  
Let the bass drum, go!

 _Let’s go, guys on the top, girls get low_  
Pull the trigger, bang bang bang  
Let the bass drum, go!

_Let the bass drum, go!  
Let the bass drum, go!_

_Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!_  
Let the bass drum, go!   
Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!  
Let the bass drum, go!

BANG! BANG!

Now that was not the music!

Taking out her earphones, she went to her door and looked into the peeping hole. Surprised, she found her landlady staring right back at her and some meters behind her, the mage could see some other people standing, but not distinguish who or how they were dressed. Nervously but trying to play it cool, the blonde opened the door.

“Good evening, ma’am. Can I do something for you?”

The older woman stared at her seriously then sighed and looked aside. “Not for me. For them” she answered gravely.

Lucy finally looked up to the people behind the landlady only to freeze.

There were five people. They were five men, and the one standing right at the front was a face she knew.

“H-hi, Doranbolt.”

To say the celestial mage was shaking like a leaf in the middle of a storm was quite the understatement. To say she was sweating as much as when she went on her first mission with Erza was another understatement.

“Lucy Heartfilia, until further notice, you are under arrest.”

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

x-The previous night-x

Nearly synchronized, Silver and Gray stirred from sleep on the bed they took to share last night they checked in an inn of a nearby town as soon as Orion and Bellatrix left. Without having to look at any clock or the window, both ice mages knew it was still the middle of the night, but they were just a little too restless to postpone their task anymore. A few hours earlier, the hunters returned and reported their successful mission before being dismissed, leaving father and child to enjoy their time together a little more.

Now, with most things ready and their magic singing to be let out, they just couldn’t ignore it anymore.

They checked out and on the way out of town, they finished detailing their plan. Silver would go back first with a little help of Gray’s teleportation magic and check how things were going in Tartaros’ Headquarters then mentally send a message back to Gray. Depending on the situation, she would act to tie any loose ends before going for the all-out attack while Silver did his best to hinder any of the demons’ plans.

Turns out the situation couldn’t have been better. Jackal and Tempester were the only ones missing and their demise was yet to be acknowledged. Kyouka has just returned from combing their lesser guilds for new recruits, finding few who were, now, already being treated at the labs, only poor souls that didn’t really have any value to society and were already past the point of being recovered to their human selves. The other demons who were supposed to go after other previous Council members were held back by whatever reason Silver didn’t care to ask for. And best of all, the human traitor former Chairman Crawford Seam was present, panicking because the missing two demons were taking too long for a seemingly easy task.

When the ice devil slayer passed his findings to his partner, reaction was instantaneous.

The laboratory holding the few new experiments exploded. Not a second later, something big hit their flying base, tipping Headquarters off balance. If that wasn’t enough, a loud nine tuned roar echoed through the hallways of the base and made it shake again.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Ezel yelled irritated. The others looked around surprised and annoyed as well.

Who was stupid enough to try and attack them? Not to mention, their base was a flying piece of land for crying out loud! Unless they knew what they were looking for. Deciding to worry about a traitor among them later, Kyouka took the lead and started giving orders. The others weren’t that happy to be ordered around, but knew better than to go against Kyouka’s words. She was the strongest of them for a reason.

“Ezel, go see what hit us from outside. Seira, go check the laboratory. Franmalth, you keep an eye on the Chairman. Everyone else, scatter and see what made that roar.”

All seven took off immediately. Silver wondered what his child did to cause such a commotion, but knowing her latest acquisitions, it might have been one of her spirits… or three.

Running past another corridor, the ice devil slayer almost missed a woman standing out of place with chains tightly gripped in her hands. Cautiously, he approached her and got a better look at what she was doing, or rather, just did. Keith was completely trapped in thick chains and seemed unconscious.

“Are you one of Gray’s celestial spirits?” he asked the woman, still standing a couple of meters away, least she attacked him.

The chain woman turned to look at him with solemn eyes, attention never leaving her captive. “I see” she said with calm and sweet voice, reminding Silver of a princess of old stories, “You are the one my Lady told us about. The Ice Devil Slayer, her father” she nodded in greetings.

Silver returned the nod. “Has she come yet?”

“Yes. Lady is surveying the others. I will hold this demon to the end. She might be heading towards Orpheus, at the laboratory, if I am not wrong” Andromeda informed and the man quickly thanked her before darting off to where he was sure Torafusa went.

Gray and Silver’s plan was to act quickly and swiftly, which meant, spreading and covering most ground as possible before joining to go for the head. While he knew Gray wouldn’t have any trouble fighting Seira, and Ezel and a few others might already be occupied with other Spirits, he was not stupid to go after either Kyouka or Mard Geer on his own. And thus he was off to beat the others he just wanted to. And he had a feeling Gray would want to deal with the scum of a human being that was Crawford herself.

xxXxXxXxXxXxx

Cowering in the dark corridor, former Chairman of Magic Council Crawford Seams stared terrified at the young woman that had just frozen Franmalth into sparkling cold dust. Because this attack was happening in the dead of night and lights were not required in a demons lair, he could barely see her silhouette, but there was something about her, the cold air surrounding her or the shape her short hair stood that was slightly familiar to him, he just couldn’t put a finger on it.

“And to think a human would assist this…” she tsc-ed and the big man yelped, knowing he was in trouble and a lot of it if the whole attack was her fault. “And one that apparently stood above others and vowed to protect them…” the woman turned and a flick of light from the moon illuminated her face, allowing him to see her pale skin and dark blue eyes.

“You!” recognition hit him on the face that moment. “You were supposed to be dead!”

“Yes, well, only supposed” she answered him back flatly and froze him to death. “Too bad sometimes things don’t happen the natural way, right?”

Gray turned and practically flew off towards her High Cygnus, intent on rounding everyone as quickly as possible before joining her father and going to Mard Geer. Not a moment did her mind go back to the dead human whose frozen body slowly started to break in the dark.

She arrived at the destroyed laboratory when the prince like spirit was finishing slashing the female demon. The ice mage inspected her to make sure she was dead and swiped her hand above her body to disperse her remnants into dust. She then turned to her companion, who nodded and returned to the Celestial World, his work done. Out of all the things she did with her father in the past hours, copying his demon slaying magic and passing it to her nine High Spirits was definitely one of the best ones.

Not wasting time, she teleported herself to where she left Ludo, the Dragon breaking the guild’s structure outside. It wasn’t much a surprise for her to find his big serpentine body draped on the vertical walls and him munching some body parts that must have been the demon sent to take care of him.

“Is he tasty?” Gray couldn’t help but tease.

Ludo snorted, spat his chew toy out and incinerated it into ashes to be taken by the wind blowing. “Not really. But once you ignore the putrid taste, it had an interesting texture. Almost like crackers.”

 _I don’t want to try any of this anytime soon_ , the mage thought and walked to him. The fact she was just walking vertically on a wall and she should be falling head first towards land didn’t faze her at all.

“Do you want to play some more or go back home?” she asked him genuinely.

The Draco Spirit thought a little, before closing his eyes. “Nah, I’ll let you focus better on the task ahead, Lass. Just call whenever you want my company again.”

“Thank you” Ludo disappeared back to his realm and Gray turned to locate her father. Finding his energy just as another was extinguished, she knew they were down to the Necromancer, Kyouka and the guild’s master.

She teleported to his side and successfully made him jump a good three meters away preparing to attack.

“Please, don’t do that again!”

The woman giggled and approached him calmly. “There’s only the strong she-demon and the weirdo now. I think Hydra is having fun. Shall we check it out?”

Shaking his head, Silver agreed and both walked to Headquarters’ “meeting hall” to see Kyouka in her strongest form fighting the nine heads of Hydra, who, to both ice mages, looked like was having quite the fun time. The devil slayer watched uncertain of what to do, his companion, on the other hand sighed amused.

“Hydra, can we wrap this up already?” she asked, slight teasing seeping into her voice.

For a very brief moment, the demon turned to see the intruders and wasn’t really surprised to see Silver standing beside the other mage, but that brief moment was all the celestial spirit she was fighting needed to snatch her up in one of his many jaws.

“Everything else ready, Lass?” a free head asked amused by the struggling demon.

“Yes.”

Without further orders, two other head turned to Kyouka and blasted her with acid, deadly acid for demons. Still alive, she melted into goose on the floor, prompting the many heads to grunt in disgust before saying their farewells to their mage and going back to the Celestial World.

 _Now off to find the weirdo_ , Gray thought before she and Silver heard clapping coming from a side hallway. From the shadows, into the moonlight stepped the one and only Mard Geer, master of dark guild Tartaros. He had an irritating grin on his lips and was looking rather amused at his enemies.

“Although you aren’t more than a lowly human, I’ll give it to you your act was pretty quick. To think someone would have the capacity to kill most of these demons in less than an hour…”

“Don’t flatter yourselves” Gray replied dryly. “It wasn’t even half an hour. You should know that with this amount of power you had no chance to come close to Zeref’s strength. Hardly you’d be able to accomplish the task you were made for” she added with a sarcastic smirk, successfully making the demon’s grin tick.

In the next moment, Mard Geer released all his power and started changing forms. Both ice mages got ready, though Silver was far tenser then his daughter. Just as the demon finished himself the devil slayer shot his first attack, not wanting him to get any ground on their fight.

“Ice Devil Slayer’s Rage!” The shot of ice covered all the way from the man, past where Mard Geer was standing into the hallway behind him, destroying part of the walls as well.

“A little too slow there, Silver” the demon commented from his new location on the air, after he jumped up out of the attack’s range.

“You as well, demon” Gray said right behind her enemy and, with an ice blade, slashed down sending him back down to the ground like a bullet. On the ground, Silver would’ve smirked at his kid for their successful attack, but both he and Gray were better focused than that. He proceeded with the attack, going for a more direct fight now.

Not surprisingly, Mard Geer was able to par strike by strike against the devil slayer, deflecting many and even inflicting some damage of his own on the traitor. The young woman, on the other hand, landed quickly and neatly on the stony floor and observed the fight for a few seconds before changing her weapons. She discarded the wide blade for a simple coat of magic on her fists and engaged.

After some more blows being exchanged, they separated, the demon at one side of the hall and both ice mages at another, near the ice track Silver left with his first attack. Standing up, Mard Geer sneered at his opponents even if he was the one most injured of the three.

“Is there any particular reason you are aiming for this, traitor?” The demon taunted showing of the book he has been discretely holding the whole time.

The man’s features hardened before he spoke. “You should know. That is Zeref’s strongest demon and I intent to destroy it.”

The demon burst into laughter. “You? Destroying Master E.N.D.? Don’t joke! There’s no way you would be able to come near E.N.D.’s feet with your lowly magic!”

“Maybe not” Silver agreed then smirked. “But my heir is more than prepared.”

At that moment, Gray appeared right in front of their enemy, eyes glowing and hand poised tight as a claw and pierced him straight through his chest, armor and all. “I don’t care what kind of creature you are or if you use magic or curses, once I know how you work, you may consider yourself as good as dead.” The cracking body of Mard Geer fell slowly on the floor. “Besides, it’s not like I am not part demonic either, supposing that’s how my body died in the first place.”

Silver approached his child with calm steps and put a hand on her shoulder. “You know, every time you make a flippant comment like that I remember how normal logic doesn’t affect us, you specially.”

“Well” she snorted, “I suppose that’s a family thing.”

“Hahaha! Definitely!”

Gray went to pick the demon book up, but before her hand could touch the hard old cover, she and her father were blasted away, sent straight to the stone walls rising two large clouds of dirt.

Silver recovered and looked at where the younger mage was sent to. She was rising as well, wiping away some dust clinging to her eyes. “Are you ok, Gray?” he asked seeing as both of them sported some scratches now.

“Yeah. But someone else won’t be for long” she answered, hard gaze locked at the place they stood mere seconds before. The man looked as well and saw what had her so tense, not helping the shiver that went through his own body.

There, in the middle of the destroyed hall, stood the one and only Black Mage Zeref holding E.N.D.’s book carefully, almost lovingly as though it was an infant.

“Truthfully, it doesn’t surprise me that much you annihilated these demons so quickly. But of course, you are way past the average mage level of nowadays, right Gray?” the young looking man said sending a glance and smirk towards the young woman as he finished.

“It does surprise me, though, that you came all the way here for one book.”

“Oh, but you know this is no mere book, don’t you?” he taunted her then changed his attention to the older ice mage. “Now, I believe it is time you go back to where you belong: with the dead.”

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen until Gray felt Andromeda’s Gate closing and she knew what her enemy did. “Fuck!” she immediately linked her magic to her father’s in an attempt to retard his departure. Unfortunately, this distraction was all Zeref needed to leave the premises with a parting message.

“We’ll see again, Gray Fullbuster. I look forward to our next meeting.”

“Damn Fucker!”

“Gray” Silver called and the younger mage hesitated a split second to turn and look at her father with sad eyes.

“I knew this moment was nearing, but…” she bit her lips and looked down.

The man smiled sadly and embraced her as tight as he could without hurting her with his armor. She held him back and laid her head on his chest, trying to calm her rampaging emotions, still some tears escaped her eyes. They spent some minutes like that, just holding each other as close and tight as possible. Then he murmured into her dark locks.

“I love you, Gray.”

“I love you too, dad” she sobbed and slowly let go of her spell keeping him on the living plane, just as slowly, he disappeared on thin air.

Gray sat on her feet, fists tight against her chest, trying to reach her heart without breaching flesh and tears streaming down her face. Albeit knowing how things work, how they should go, it was hard when the moment finally arrived.

It hasn’t been long, definitely not, only a few weeks since she woke up and even less, hardly a single day since she met the man, but the feeling of being lost at the beginning, then finally finding someone in whom she found an anchor, if only for a fleeting moment was such a relief, allowed her a breathing period of peace. Sadly now, she was back to point zero, with only her Spirits but no real assurance of her place in the real world.

Thin but firm arms enveloped her in a hug that was calming and warm. Not too far, a big harp started playing a serene tune, helping relax her tense body.

“Do not forget, my Lady, we are with you to the end” Euridice, the High Lyra Spirit said, sounding like soothing bells to Gray’s ears and she welcomed all the support her dear friends gave her.


	7. Mr. Simple

**07 – Mr. Simple _by SuperJunior_**

**X781 – Way to Magnolia**

To some, four months wasn’t that long, but to Loke, it sure seemed a lot. He gazed out of the window of the train looking into the scenery passing by quickly, thinking how much his life or rather the rest of his no longer immortal life has changed. He hadn’t imagined Karen would be so reckless and stubborn to the point of preferring to attempt a suicide mission than apologizing to him. If he thought cruelly, sure he didn’t really kill the woman, but that still didn’t take away the guilty pain of knowing if it wasn’t for him, for his also reckless actions, she wouldn’t have gone to that mission practically powerless and die in the process.

Thinking about it, maybe his punishment was being rather easy. He couldn’t go back to the Celestial Spirit Realm and would eventually die form loss of life energy, but he was still granted time, albeit limited and painful, to _live_. He could go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted as long as he gathered the means to do so. Then, instead of moping around some corner and just being depressed, that was how the spirit has been passing his last two months, which ironically was doing nearly the same things Karen herself did to pass time: play around with people, namely the opposite gender. Life sure had an interesting way of working.

A couple of sudden knocks on the door to his cabin brought Loke out of his anguish thoughts. He looked up and saw a boy, definitely in his teens, peering at him, looking sheepish.

“Sorry I startled you. But would you mind sharing? The rest of the train is either full or have an annoying parrot of a person on the side” the raven haired boy said grinning slightly.

The spirit looked at him curiously. He had features not common of the southern countries of the continent, maybe he was a traveler? He had raven messy locks of hair, very pale skin and dark blue eyes, it all reminded him of a snowy plain at midnight, very romantic and mysterious at the same time. He wasn’t all that tall, he probably came up to his shoulders in height and his built wasn’t that developed either like he’d seen in some of Blue Pegasus’ boys this age, he looked quite feminine too if he stood just at the right light. One thing that caught Loke’s attention, though, was the cool magical aura emanating from the boy. Was he a mage? An ice mage perhaps? That wasn’t very common either.

Remembering he was asked a question, the blonde smirked. “Well, I certainly don’t mind, as long as you aren’t an irritating person yourself. But how can you be sure I am not one?”

“Hahaha!” Strangely, the boy’s laugh did something to Loke’s insides he wasn’t sure if he liked. It felt like warm butterflies going wild in his stomach, that cheesy feeling when you see your crush mixed with a happiness of hearing someone that doesn’t laugh that much doing so meaningfully. “I haven’t heard any strange noises from here all the while I’ve been looking for a place. So…”

Putting aside his odd reaction, Loke nodded with a short laugh of his own. “Sure, it’s all yours” he motioned the seat in front of him and saw as the boy smiled thankfully at him and entered the cabin. He wasn’t carrying much, the spirit noticed, only a duffel bag that was small enough to serve a short trip. So he was probably a mage going to or coming from a mission…

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it” the boy suddenly spoke up and the blonde looked at him startled.

“I said that out loud?”

“Yes, you did” the raven smirked and sat down, keeping his bag nearby. “The name’s Gray, by the way, Gray Fullbuster” he said extending a hand for a shake.

“Nice to meet you, call me Loke” the spirit shook the other’s hand with a nervous laugh. “And this isn’t awkward at all.”

In good spirits, Gray only laughed and waved it off. “I’ve seen worse. There’s this guy in my guild that doesn’t know a thing about social awareness.”

Loke could be reading too much into it or maybe it was his own reoccurring grief for Karen, but he noted a longing in Gray’s voice he just didn’t like. Narrowing his eyes almost imperceptibly, the blonde decided not to delve into it.

“Hey, I don’t want to look rude or anything, but do you mind if I work on some things of mine here for a while? I had this crazy idea before boarding the train and I want to write it down before I miss it” Gray asked already pulling a notebook out of his bag with a pen.

“Nope. Suit yourself.”

The boy smiled and sat sideways on the bench, giving Loke a nice profile look of himself with the sunlight shining from behind him. Looking closely at this new angle of the raven, the spirit had a feeling of familiarity, like he’d seen Gray before, but he knew they never met before, the chances were minimal. Pausing in his scribbling, the younger male pushed some locks of hair back from his face and went back to his writing and muttering. But still he didn’t give away what it that looked familiar to Loke was.

He sighed and looked out of the window again. His trail of thoughts from before were successfully pushed away and there was this new lingering feeling the blonde found himself having in the presence of the teen. A fleeting memory of two of his dear friends Aquarius and Scorpio passed his mind and suddenly his eyes widened. What were the chances he was starting to develop feelings for this boy? A boy he met not ten minutes ago, human and most importantly, mortal, not to mention he would probably die long before Gray grew up. Oh he just couldn’t possibly be having a crush on first sight! That was just ridiculous!

A soft rhythmic tapping of pen on paper distracted the spirit from his inner distress. The blonde looked up and saw Gray tapping his pen to his notebook in a very catching rhythm and moving his lips as if he was talking, or to the looks of it, singing. His brows were frowned a little in concentration and his dark eyes slightly unfocused, as though his mind was completely elsewhere. At some time, the boy stopped, scrunched his nose and groaned, messing his hair roughly. He threw his head back and laid there, eyes closed and muttering anew, pen tapping. Then and there, looking at the raven in that position, Loke knew where he was familiar from.

“You are that new teen model from Fairy Tail, aren’t you? The double one” Loke said suddenly, recalling the few pictures of said mage in fashion magazines and how good they were, both the male and the female sections. He remembered an interview with the model asking for his choice in double modeling, to which he answered it wasn’t ever really a choice, but he didn’t mind, or rather he quite liked it, especially when he was called and their most famous females weren’t.

Gray stopped his tapping and sighed deeply. “Yeah, that’s me. Please tell me you’re not a fan” he shot Loke a side-glance, almost challenging him to be one of his excited fan-boys that were almost as bad as the fan-girls.

The blonde blinked surprised by the response then laughed a little. “I do appreciate your work and how well you pull off those looks, but I don’t think I’m to the point of being a fan. Not to the extreme extend at least” he smirked. “So, since I already interrupted you, what’s that you’re working on? That is, if you want to talk about it.”

The raven shrugged and sat up, lowering his legs to face the other. “Nothing much, really. Just a little something I did when I was a kid and stopped when I moved south.”

Loke hummed and took a careful look at his companion’s body language. If he was reading the boy right, he was remembering something from the past and that something was not a nice experience, and he wasn’t about to be the cause of another’s angst if he could help it.

“Could I be honored to see it?” the spirit tried to lift the mood asking cheerfully. Gray startled and looked at him surprised. He bit his lip a little and averted his eyes.

“Maybe… some other day… when it is ready. I really don’t like showing unfinished projects to anyone” the teen said timidly, sounding not much like himself from minutes before and still very much natural and cute.

… Okay, where did that come from? Loke beat himself internally again for having thoughts going that direction. It really wasn’t going to be any good if he started that road that would lead only to more suffering and angst.

“I can respect that. But there is one problem” Loke said and Gray looked at him again, one eyebrow arching in question. Yeah, that was more like his cool aura. “What are the chances of us meeting again?”

“It’s not exactly difficult for you to find me. Fairy Tail is very well known and everybody there would gladly tell you where I am once you prove not to be a threat” the raven answered immediately like the most natural thing in the world. And it probably was. “Or you could join Fairy Tail too, if you are interested in magic guilds and not in one yet, that is.”

“I am not” the blonde said slowly. “But I don’t really know about joining one. My… let’s say partner was from one and some months ago she passed away because of a mission gone wrong…”

Gray looked at the man surprised he opened that kind of information to someone he barely knew for half an hour. He certainly wouldn’t. It’s been years and yet he never told anyone in Fairy Tail about how he came to the guild. “I am sorry.”

“Nothing you need to be sorry for” Loke shrugged.

“No” Gray shook his head. “I am sorry that happened to you. Even if it is inevitable at some point in time and life, it is still sad to those that stay. That is what I am sorry for, your pain” he said truthfully, thinking back to how he felt when he lost everything he knew in one night.

The spirit was stunned by the boy’s words. It was very mature for someone who looked so young. It could only mean he had been through an experience such as that himself. And if Gray understood that feeling of loss so much, it probably happened some time ago, which means he was rather young when it, whatever it was, happened.

So Loke nodded in understanding and decided to turn their conversation another way. “So, tell me about Fairy Tail, then. Maybe I’ll visit to see for myself. I have heard of it many times before, but never met anyone from there, until you.”

Realizing what was being done here, Gray smirked and mirth danced in his eyes. “It is the best guild ever! They are my family.”

Hours later, past nightfall, the duo walked to a big building while talking about anything that came to mind, just like the whole of their trip to Magnolia. It was very clear they formed a good bond of friendship, and if Loke’s feelings were to rein, it would develop into something more just for instinct the spirit wasn’t still certain of. So here they were, Gray leading the way towards the guildhall of Fairy Tail, the strongest guild of Fiore.

Inside, everything was very much different from Blue Pegasus Loke remembers. While in Pegasus there was this flirty and classy aura clouding the place, here everything was lively and free. People were talking, laughing scandalously, drinking and eating. There were even some people about to fight… Oh wait, they were already fighting, two girls, one red haired and another white haired, and a pink haired boy was laughing his ass off to the side while a smaller white-head girl tried to calm the older girls.

“That’s normal. Those are Erza and Mira, and that’s Natsu and Lisanna” Gray explained pointing to each person as he named them. Still staring, Loke nodded. “I’m going to talk with the Master about my mission. If you want to, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind talking to you too.”

Shrugging the kids’ attitudes off, the blonde agreed and let the raven lead the way further into the hall and towards the bar, where a small old man was sitting on the counter. Loke was no ignorant even being a spirit. He knew a powerful mage when he saw one, and the one in front of him was a well-known one: Master Makarov, Guild Master of Fairy Tail and one of the Ten Saint Mages of Fiore.

“I’m back, Jii-san” the boy smiled at the old man and Loke could see the little man was held in high standards by Gray.

“Welcome back, Gray. How was your mission?” Makarov nodded at his boy grinning widely. “Everything went well I believe?”

“Yeah, it did. Here’s the report and stuff” he passed a small stack of papers and the man nodded, putting them aside for later inspection. He then turned to the newcomer. “Found a new friend on your way, Gray? I’m Makarov and welcome to Fairy Tail guild.”

Loke smiled politely. “Thank you. You can call me Loke. Gray and I met on the train by chance. A very interesting mage you have there, Master Makarov.”

“Hahaha! There you are right!” the master laughed and Gray blushed very slightly at the compliments, an strange under look in the younger man’s eyes, though he didn’t know why.

“Tch. Jii-san, I invited Loke over for him to meet the guild and maybe join us. He’s cool.”

Either Loke or Makarov where about to say something in response to Gray’s words, but then a loud voice shouted out from the other side of the guild drawing everyone’s attention.

“Got yourself a new boyfriend, Ice Princess?!”

Instantly, the air around Gray dropped some degrees and a very irritated frown took place in his face with such ferocity Loke was actually startled by it and how much there seemed to lay behind those dark blue eyes.

“At least I don’t go around dragging people into trouble or ignoring other people’s feelings, Ash Brain!”

“Do you wanna go, ice bastard?!”

“Bring it on, fire fucker!”

The quick and loud exchange was between Gray and the pink head boy, Natsu, and not a moment after Gray’s retort, the two were at each other’s throats punching and kicking the other, dragging nearby people into the brawl every now and then.

A loud exasperated sigh beside him made the spirit turn to the guild master again with questioning eyes.

“If you are wondering what this is about, those two boys have been fighting like that for months now. Sometimes I just worry about their health. Gray has closed off since it all began and Natsu just reacts in ways I don’t believe will benefit anyone” Makarov told him quietly, only for the two of them to hear the words. Not that it was difficult to keep their conversation private with the ruckus the brawl was making.

“Why are you telling me this? I am just a visitor here” Loke inquired confused. That information was very personal and from what he got from Blue Pegasus’ members and master, Fairy Tail was rumored to be very close and protective of its own members.

“Well, you seem to care for Gray” the smaller man gave him a meaningful side look to which the blonde paled a little and felt his heartbeat pick up. “And I have a feeling you are not just a visitor.”

Loke looked into the other’s eyes and felt how the man stripped him down from all his barriers, how he appeared to know what happened into his soul. It was like Makarov knew what he was and how lost in this world he was. This man was taking him in, giving him a place to rest and belong to until it was his time to part. This man was something else.

“So, where would you like your guild mark?”

**X782 – Magnolia, Fiore**

Loke stretched up relaxing after a relatively long mission. It had been almost three weeks since he left and was finally back home. Home. It was a nice thought, yes, really nice. And to think about a year ago he was lost wandering around Fiore just waiting for the time he would simply fade. Now, after having a chance encounter with one of Fairy Tail most notorious mages, for many reasons, here he was, a mage of said guild and taking comfort in it being his home for as long as he could hold off.

A small box was put in front of him by a pale hand suddenly. Looking up and to his right, the spirit saw his best friend sporting a cute blush on his cheeks and trying to pull off a tough cool guy look sitting beside him by the counter. Noticing the ice mage wasn’t about to say anything, he decided to open the package and see what this was about. Inside the plain golden box was a CLD fit for a single and a CLD-player styled in Icy Fairy’s trademark colors. So Gray gave him a single of one of his songs. That was something you didn’t see happen all the time. In fact, it was the very first time it happened.

“So, what is it?” Loke sing-sang picking up the items he was gifted.

“I meant to give you them eight days ago, but you were away” Gray answered, his blush deepening a little, just a little, just his fair skin made it brighter.

“What was eight days ago?” the blonde asked oblivious. The younger mage looked at him seriously, then sighed and turned away again.

“The anniversary of the day we met, you dumb. And it is the song I was working on that day in the train. Finished it just last month.”

Loke was surprised by that. Sure, he remembered it was about this time he met Gray and came to Fairy Tail and the circumstances of how it all happened. But he was taken aback by the other’s thoughtfulness. He didn’t know Gray cared _that much_ about him, even being his best friend. He also knew how much secretive he was with his musical projects and what they meant to him. To receive a song first hand from the artist himself, and most certainly the only copy, was such a great honor.

Smiling truthfully, he said, “Thank you, Gray. It really means a lot.”

The ice mage shrugged and stood up. “You are very welcome. And make sure it doesn’t fall into one of your groupies’s hands.”

“Not a thing to worry” Gray nodded and took a step to leave, but his arm was grabbed and pulled him back. “Really, Gray, thank you” and Loke kissed Gray on the cheek lovingly, making the raven freeze and squeak cutely and loudly, drawing attention from most of the people on the guild hall.

And Bickslow’s whistling and catcalls made sure to have the rest of the guild witness their resident ice prince go beet red while his best friend was having the time of his life.

**X792 – Celestial World**

Leo was sitting on the verge of a cliff in the common island between the twelve Elliptical Zodiac. He was staring off into the starry sky lost in his thoughts while his hands played absentmindedly with a little silver sphere he hadn’t taken off his person ever since he was handed it by Virgo four months ago. Somehow it kept him grounded to a strange feeling of security and yet almost drove him insane.

_Because You Naughty, Naughty_  
Hey! Mr. Simple  
Because You Naughty, Naughty

Since the tragic mission to the north, Loke didn’t feel right. He was missing a part of him. As clichéd poetic as it may sound, that was what Gray had become the moment the young teenager had invited him to come to Fairy Tail for a little visit. That boy was something else. Okay, so maybe everyone in Fairy Tail was, but there was this thing in the ice mage that made him stand out of the crowd of unique people that was the guild.

For one, Gray Fullbuster, like many of the newest generation of mages, carried a shadow from his past. He heard the many stories, most told him by the boy himself. He knew how Natsu was always searching for his dragon father, how the Strauss siblings showed up scared and lost and Mira almost left her younger brother and sister for their “safety”, how Cana lost her mother too early and came in search of her father yet in a less aggressive manner than Natsu and how Erza was a loner when she first became part of the guild, not trusting anyone near her. And of course, his best friend told him he came south in search of a magic guild after losing everything in his home in the north, though ‘everything’ was never specified.

But in a way different from the other kids – to his eyes, that is – the raven seemed to hold another weight closer to the surface, one that involved his close comrades and that could split them all apart if brought to light. Or that was what it felt like until he found out that was exactly it. By then, he already accepted his interest in Gray, and quite frankly told him in one of their paired missions. The spirit remembers how the younger mage gave him a wistful smile and told him he couldn’t return his feelings because he was already in love with someone else. It wasn’t much longer after that they became best friends as curious as it may be.

_You can’t get mad that the world doesn’t go your way, you don’t have to mind your own business_  
Don’t be too attached to trivial things, it’s not good for your body  
It’s just that my personality goes good then bad, so what!   
There must be times when my performance goes up then down too  
It’s okay, it’s also good to rest then keep going, because everything has its time

Secondly, even with such darkness weighting him down, Gray still held a happy and up-beat way of life he wouldn’t be able to. Actually, it was already proved he couldn’t, if Karen and how he behaved after was anything to go by. That kid had a way to deal with things that was far more mature that his actual age indicated. And he didn’t know if he should be awed or saddened by the fact. It kind of made him want to protect Gray even with his entire prowess, which wasn’t little.

And lastly, as time went on and they got to know each other more, Loke saw a side of Gray only Cana and Laxus knew about as they were the first people to approach Gray when he joined Fairy Tail. It was the side he didn’t show the guild, the one he hid in order to guarantee people don’t pity him for the tragedies of his life. It was an interesting thing to think about once one paid attention to the others who inevitably kept their own secrets. He had lived long enough to learn many things about humans and their behavior, as it is it became apparent when people want to hide something, they expressed it in a physical way. For example, Erza used her armor – and made it into a fearsome weapon -, Cana drank a lot, Natsu was always this ball of energy and purposefully oblivious, Laxus had his tough guy attitude the ones who knew him knew was only for show and he flirted with as many girls as possible. Gray had his stripping habit, but it was more a muscle reflex from his training than him trying to keep things inside. After all, people tended to protect themselves rather than expose their bodies in situations like that. The ice mage was really something else in the lion’s eyes.

These thoughts brought him to the first meaningful gift he ever received on his first anniversary of being a Fairy Tail mage. The private song, the very same one the artist was working on the day they met. A song that told him, maybe subconsciously, Gray could feel people’s needs better than he was given credit for. Because if he hadn’t fallen for him by then, he certainly did after listening and watching a special recording that was really meant solely for him, he didn’t even perform at the moment.

_If you’re a man, go meet your friends and sweep it off with a drink_  
(Alright!) Alright  
If you’re a woman, go meet your friends, have a chat and throw it away   
(Alright!) Alright, Alright

_Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that_  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that   
Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that   
Let’s go, let’s go, let’s hurry and go, let’s go back when we are blocked.

_If it’s too troublesome, you feel like dying, just for today let’s play first_  
Anyway when this harsh world runs like hell, I’m the only one that is worn out.   
Just wait, just save it, because your day will come soon  
Blow Your Mind - Go Mr. Simple  
Blow Your Mind - The time has come, don’t be afraid  
Blow Your Mind - Let’s go Mr. Simple  
Blow Your Mind - The time has come, you know you’re ready

Now, the reason his mind went back to his grieving of Gray after actually managing to accept the fact he lost his best friend was a little discovery he had when searching for more clues on who this new celestial mage could be.

According to Yajima-san, Orion and Bellatrix were under the command of a very powerful female mage that was out directly attacking the dark guild Tartaros, the last and most powerful guild of the Balam Alliance. It was unlikely she was doing so alone, but then again, there was Crime Sorciere with only three, now two members that went against dark guilds by themselves. And with the information Lucy’s Crux gave them, the pair wasn’t the only ones with her.

So after coming back to the Celestial World, he set out to find the High Spirits in hopes of getting any information he could use to be assured it wasn’t a new enemy for his guild, and maybe have a small chat with these allusive spirits. But alas, he found neither the High Hunters nor anyone with information or permission to talk about the subject. What he did find, though, was a silver key hunter that told him the place his leaders and their mage first met, and surprisingly it was in this plane.

Curious, he went there, a secluded plaza big enough to hold some of the biggest spirits with easy. The place had nothing out of the ordinary, everything was in place and there wasn’t a scratch on any surface. He walked around slowly, trying to pick anything, anything at all. He was nearing the end of the platform the plaza stood on when he felt it. There, ever so soft, was a little cold air.

Now, as leader of the Elliptical Zodiac he knew basically ever spirit in this helm, albeit not personally. He was aware there were some spirits that manipulated ice or snow. But there was a very distinct feeling to a spirit’s magic compared to that of a human’s. And this particular one, felt way to familiar to him. It felt comforting and calming in its low temperature.

It felt too much like Gray’s ice magic.

_We are living in this world where annoying things aren’t just one or two, know that too_  
What is so hard about this? We just have to eat well, sleep well and do well too, that will do  
If you’re mad, go meet your friend and release it by talking behind their backs (Alright!) Alright  
If you’re distressed, sing a song, scream out loud and blow it away (Alright!) Alright, Alright

_Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that_  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that   
Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that

Aries and the other golden key Spirits under Lucy accompanied from the distance Leo’s search while doing some of their own with no new information. Also from their perspective, they saw how his finding of those little remains of ice magic shook their leader even if he didn’t want to admit it. So right now, they sat together a little away from the blonde and kept watch over him, for whenever he needed any of them, they would be there for him.

“Stop munching on your fingers, Aries” Capricorn told her gently seeing as the ram girl was about to eat her hands off.

“Ah! Sorry…” she told him, worried eyes still on her dear friend. “It is just I don’t know what to do…” she added timidly.

“Leo’s suffering from love. That’s tough” Scorpio commented from his seat beside his girlfriend, who had a very thoughtful expression.

“And there is the matter of the new celestial mage that is worrying everyone in Earthland -moo” Taurus spoke with crossed arms.

All of them knew what a High Spirit being under contract with a human meant. And none of them liked the prospect whoever did it with two of the most powerful ones, this person had in total nine of the strongest High Spirits. If it came to a fight between Lucy and this mage, it was most likely Lucy would lose. It wasn’t that they didn’t have faith in their owner. It was simply facts that their blond girl still had a long way to go whereas whoever acquired a High Silver Key should already be past her level, add to the equation it was a multi-summon, chances were even Master Makarov would have a run for his money in this battle.

Suddenly, Aquarius stood up and went to their leader.

“Baby?” the scorpion called but received no answer. The blue mermaid just continued on her way.

With her scowl still in place, the Water Bearer glared down at her friend. As few seconds of tense scowling and ignoring later, the blue haired female popped her vase and dumped a fair wave of cold water onto the suit wearing male. The others behind her gasped in varying levels of surprise and Leo actually jumped into the air some feet before turning around and glaring at his companion.

“What was that for, Aquarius?!”

“You” she poked him on the chest. “The great Leo does not sulk, simple as that.”

“I wasn’t sulking!” Loke retorted, only to gain crossed arms and unamused eyes from the other.

“Could’ve fooled me” Aquarius sighed and dropped her arms then. “Look, Leo, we all know how close to Gray you were, how much you loved him and how much his death affected you. But Lucy and your guild are probably going through problematic times right now. Get a grip of yourself.”

This time, the lion sighed and took off his glasses, messing his soaking hair in exasperation. “I know that! It’s not that I forgot or anything. But that magic…” he turned and looked at the place he went to before. “You didn’t know him that closely, none of you. That was exactly his magic. And you all know how nearly impossible it is to copy somebody else’s magic signature. And even if it were, what would be the chances?” he turned back towards his comrades, watching as they shifted and thought about his words.

“Even so, Leo-sama, Gray-sama died. He can’t come back to life” Capricorn said reasonably.

Leo bit his lips, “That… Is up to debate…” he muttered.

“Meaning?” Aquarius asked impatiently, yet considerate of her friend’s emotions.

“The Eclipse incident” he answered and the others stiffened. They didn’t like to think about that episode. It had been traumatic for the mages involved, and they received they share of stress through their mage. And something else… “That replayed minute” Leo continued. “Gray told me afterwards it was his master’s daughter’s doing that saved so many lives… Including him. From what he told me, he actually died then. And yet came back to life after some time magic. I was wondering if something of the sort hadn’t happened and he somehow found his way here…”

That line of thought was illogical as much as it was logical. The impossible had happened before, not that surprising considering Fairy Tail was involved in the ordeal. But fact remained: people lived again, so it wasn’t that farfetched for it to happen again considering everything. But still…

“Gray was a guy and this new celestial mage is a girl – piripiri” Gemini spoke up the thought in everyone’s mind.

And that was what was so confusing about the whole situation.

_Dance! Is there any big deal about that thing called freedom? Just Get It Get It_  
The joy of small deviations doong doong doong koong koong koong  
Do you wanna feel yourself living? Just Grab It Grab It  
Talk about the dreams that my heart is running to doong doong doong koong koong koong  
(Because You Naughty, Naughty)  
Don’t worry now, good days will come next. Leave serious stories behind  
Smile brightly for today, with your bright smile, everyone will be lightened up

_Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that_  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that   
Look Mr. Simple, Simple You are you are cool just like that  
Look Miss Simple, Simple You are pretty just like that   
Let’s go, let’s go, let’s hurry and go, let’s go back when we are blocked.

_If it’s too troublesome you feel like dying, just for today let’s play first_  
Anyway when this harsh world runs like hell, I’m the only one that is worn out.   
Just wait, just save it, because your day will come soon  
Blow Your Mind - Go Mr. Simple  
Blow Your Mind - The time has come, don’t be afraid  
Blow Your Mind - Let’s go Mr. Simple  
Blow Your Mind - Go Mr. Simple

Whatever it was anyone was going to say next was interrupted when Leo and Capricorn felt Lucy opening their gates. With a shared look this conversation would most likely continue after whatever trouble Lucy got herself in now was solved. But like the loyal spirits they were, both chosen fighters answered their call and passed to the Human World.

The pair came to an open road surrounded by unconscious soldiers of the Magic Council. Beside Lucy, behind them, was Yukino and in front of her was Pisces and behind them all a carriage that was adapted to carry prisoners comfortably. For a fleeting moment, the males wondered what as the meaning of it all, but then they focused on the person in front of them. This person had a hood over their head and cloak covering all of their identity. They were standing calmly emanating waves of great magical prowess without even trying and still not really offensive.

“Who is that, Lucy?” the lion asked not taking his eyes from their opponent.

“Why are you wet, Loke?” Lucy wondered then shook her head. “Not that it matters now. She is trying to take you away from me.”

They felt Yukino nodding in agreement and a sigh from the hooded figure. “I never intended on taking him away from you, Lucy Heartfilia. I only asked for you to cancel your contract with him temporarily for a conversation and I would return his key without even using it.”

It was a girl the spirits realized. Leo noticed one more thing: her voice was calm, cool and smooth, felt like velvet on skin to his ears and held a very distinctive pitch he had witnessed before in a duet he performed. Mentally shaking his head in concentration, he addressed the unknown female.

“I do not believe that to be agreeable. What business do you have with me?”

“A very private one that will interfere in nothing with their lives” she tilted her head ever so slightly indicating the two celestial mages passed him. “Unfortunately for your mage and her friend, they just challenged me to a battle between stellar mages.”

The lion’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Are you a stellar mage?” His answer didn’t come in words.

The lower part of the other mage was visible, allowing the group to see her lips stretch a little into an amused smirk before she pulled her arm from the cloak and let them see a silver key in her hand, and not any silver key. It was a very intricate and detailed key that gave off an acrid hot feeling.

Leo, Capricorn and Pisces identified that key as the one to summon the High Dragon.


	8. The DJ is mine

**08 – The DJ is mine _by Wonder Girls_**

Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Agria looked at each other gloomy sitting in front of the other in a comfortably cushioned carriage that was definitely a prison to both girls. On their wrists, anti-etherano cuffs held their hands close and stopped them from using any magic. Their celestial keys were also taken from them by the soldiers of the Magic Council. Outside, flanking the transportation from all sides, two squads of said soldiers kept guard following Doranbolt’s lead. And the worst part, neither of the girls knew why they were being held!

Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. They did say they were being arrested as suspects of the attack on the Magic Council Hall, one that happened by a demon and two celestial spirits. From what the blonde gathered, it was the same pair of spirits that took down the enemy that tried to kill Yajima-san. So they both knew it wasn’t neither of them, and so they said. But of course the soldiers didn’t take their word and even inspecting their keys proved their innocence, they still had orders to bring them over to the Council.

So now, Lucy and Yukino were in the middle of a dirt road pissed off and worried. Both reasonably worried what their guildmates were going to do once they had notice of what happened to their respective celestial mages. Things were definitely not going to go well.

It was sunrise when the carriage came to a halt and sound of distress from outside alerted the pair. Two pairs of brown eyes met each other and agreed to peak outside in hopes to learn what was happening outside.

“Miss, please, clear the way” Doranbolt said in his authoritative voice. “We have a schedule to reach.”

“I have no intention of disturbing you” a smooth and beautiful female voice answered. “But I have business with one of the people you hold captive.”

The girls looked at each other in confusion. None knew of anyone with such voice and from what they remembered, they didn’t have an enemy that might have been after them for whatever reason. But of course, Lucy being Lucy, anything could happen, especially now she was Fairy Tail.

“That cannot be. Please step aside or we will forcefully make you” Doranbolt spoke again. It sounded like a few soldiers moved to make true to their captain’s threat.

Then there was a strange feeling in the air. It moved lazily even inside the carriage and the temperature dropped a little. From outside, thuds were heard, many of them, like bodies dropping to the floor carelessly. Distraught and suspicious, the pair tried to open the side door and was fairly surprised when the lock clicked and opened for them. They didn’t step outside, but they did peak their heads out to survey the area.

Gasps left their throats as they saw all, absolutely all of the soldiers down, unconscious on the ground and only Doranbolt still standing and with difficulty, hardly keeping himself awake and glaring at the person he was speaking to. Said person was a girl that couldn’t be much older than Lucy and Yukino themselves, she was covered from head to toes with clothes and a cloaked hood except for the lower part of her face, displaying pale skin and a thin pair of lips. They also prided themselves in understanding this opponent wasn’t one to take lightly, not only for the obvious ease in which she took down an entire troop of council soldiers, but she also emanated great power, much like Gildarts or Jura or the guild masters.

“Lucy Heartfilia” the unknown woman said, hidden face turning towards the spoken and the blonde tensed. Yukino did as well in worry for her friend. Doranbolt almost jumped, he didn’t notice his two prisoners have left the carriage. He half turned back and saw the duo leaving the transport.

“Don’t come out here. She is dangerous and you two are to come to the Council” the man would probably have yelled had he the strength to do so. This mysterious person was too powerful and using a sleep magic strong enough to knock out many well trained and high leveled mages and soldiers, he was only still awake out of sheer stubbornness.

“Well, you still need help out here” the girls stepped outside and walked as well as the cuffs on their wrists allowed them to. “And besides, from what we heard she is after one of us” her eyes were glinting with determination not to let anyone take her down easily and she knew Yukino shared the sentiment.

The man opened his mouth to say something but was cut short but the other female.

“You are mistaken” she said calmly. “I have no business with any of you mages” they were understandably surprised seeing as the girls were the only prisoners here and everybody else was knocked out cold. “I need Leo, the lion spirit.”

There was a small, very fleeting moment of shock in which Lucy froze in fear of losing her dear friend, but then it was quickly replaced by a strong resolve to do whatever it would take to keep all her precious immortal friends with her. The fair haired girl also stood on alert, ready to jump in and help her fellow celestial mage in defending those they held dear.

On the other side of the road, Gray was getting frustrated and losing her patience at the girls’ obvious attitudes and conclusions. She knew, from the feeling her High Spirits let her have, that many celestial mages were abusive towards their spirits and treated them like objects, toys to be used for the own pleasure. From what she could see, these two in front of her aren’t like that. They cared for their spirits and cherished them. They were protective, not because they were their possession, but rather because they were important living beings. Gray respected that.

But she also needed to meet Leo to understand the rest of her missing life.

It was awfully selfish what she wanted to do, but there was no other way around it. She needed the lion to cancel his contract with his mage, temporarily that is, so they could talk without interruption. It really was important.

“I am not letting you take Loke from me!” the blonde told her fiercely, fists closed tight.

“Allow me to rephrase my request. I need to talk to Leo, only that. For that I ask you to release him from your contract temporarily and as soon as I have finished, I will give you his key back.”

The ice mage was trying to be as polite as she could. Her grief from losing her father a second time still weighted her and she barely let herself rest after the ordeal with Tartaros.

After the demons were taken care of, their flying headquarters started to collapse right on a city she didn’t know, but that didn’t mean she would simply let it fall and destroy half the place and its inhabitants. So she broke the flying ground and transported it to an open field bare of human settlements. Needless to say it tired her a bit though not enough to exhaust her.

Then she traveled over to Crocus, the capital city and did a little research on celestial mages of nowadays and looked for clues to who Leo could be with. Sure, she could’ve asked Cruzeiro for the information, but following her own example, it was possible the Golden Keyed Spirits also held their mage in secrecy. She found the information fairly quickly, though, and was quite surprised one single mage held most of the Golden Keys. But according to the records of what appear to a grand event resembling games among magic guilds, she didn’t have complete control of her powers and wasn’t strong enough to pose as a threat. Curiously, she found this mage, Lucy Heartfilia was part of Fairy Tail guild, the same one she was supposed to belong to before this whole situation started months ago.

Now, face to face with the two mages that together held the entirety of the Elliptical Zodiac she was mentally tired and disappointed they could be neither more compliant to her harmless wishes nor better challenging to be a stress relief. All in all, the situation developed into a very frustrating one to her.

“What guarantees me you will keep your word? Nothing! I am not going to fall for a trick like this!” Lucy proved to be stubborn, a little too much for Gray. And there was this little niggling feeling in the back of her mind telling her it was not the first time she was frustrated with this person. Chances were high they have interacted often in the past, enough to leave her exasperated.

“That is just too bad. I have no intention of going away empty handed. Either you comply with my conditions or I will strip you down of ownership of all your Golden Keys. If you are this shallow a person, you clearly do not deserve one of those might beings.”

Following her declaration, Gray saw how the girls braced themselves for the impending battle. Casting a quick glance towards the still awake male, she knocked him down with sheer magic pressure and brought a hand forward, pointing towards him. She could see and hear how the pair thought she was going to kill him, but she only made three key rings float from his robes and in front of them.

“Take your keys. Free yourselves. Then you will regret your decisions.”

She then waited patiently while the duo picked respective keys and unlocked their cuffs, all the while keeping wary glares at her. Once the enchanted metals hit the ground three golden keys glinted in the rising sun light.

“Open, gate of the lion, Loke, and gate of the goat, Capricorn!”

“Open gate of the paired fish, Pisces!”

Bright golden light enveloped the area, when it faded the suited forms of Leo and Capricorn and the humanoid warrior forms of Mother and Son were revealed standing protectively in front of their respective mages. The summons quickly took in their surroundings and focused on the supposed enemy. Curiously, the ginger lion was soaking wet and dripping on the dry ground. Gray was slightly amused by the sight, had he been in the middle of a discussion with the water bearer?

“Who is that, Lucy?” Leo asked, shaded eyes narrowed in suspicion and uneasy towards her.

His owner also noticed his state and commented on it, but soon brushed it aside and responded him seriously, “She is trying to take you away from me.”

Huh? That was an interesting way to phrase it. Was she used to be the damsel in distress or something? It sounded awfully like a whine to Gray’s ear. Besides that wasn’t the initial purpose she came here with.

 “I never intended on taking him away from you, Lucy Heartfilia. I only asked for you to cancel your contract with him temporarily for a conversation and I would return his key without even using it.”

There was a very quick spark of recognition in Leo’s eyes the moment she spoke before he answered. It seems he really was the key to her lost memories, no pun intended. “I do not believe that to be agreeable. What business do you have with me?”

She decided to answer him truthfully, it would be no good if she lied or withheld essential information at the moment. “A very private one that will interfere in nothing with their lives” she motioned the mages passed the spirits. “Unfortunately for your mage and her friend, they just challenged me to a battle between stellar mages.” She also informed him, inwardly wondering in mirth how well would he take to her revelations after this battle.

The four spirits readied themselves to fight and it was their leader who voiced their collective doubt. “Are you a stellar mage?”

Clearly, they knew very well the meaning of this setting. Were Lucy and Yukino to lose the battle, all their keys would be rightfully passed to the other mage in case the other was a celestial mage as well. They were all aware the pair they fought for was strong and capable of calling the strongest magic of their field together if needed, but they were under no illusion this was going to be an easy confrontation. She hadn’t done anything since their summoning and already they knew their opponent was in level with the greatest mages of Fiore.

Smirking in amusement, Gray pulled out Ludo’s key and called “Open, High gate of the great dragon, Ludo” ever so calmly.

The combatants braced themselves for the appearance of the grand serpentine reptile, whose body curled protectively around his summoner. His neon blue eyes locked on the four opponents a sharp teethed grin opened his jaw, dangerous gasses ready to spill.

“Long time no see, Leo, Capricorn, Pisces” he growled sounding rather cheerful in the present situation.

“So it is, Ludo” Leo greeted the High Dragon, fists ready to call for Regulus and shoot.

Behind them, Lucy shivered, and felt her friend do the same. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was quite scared of the other party. It was a dragon she was against. Given, it was a spirit dragon, but a dragon nonetheless and her past experiences with that kind were definitely not nice, miracles or not involved. That aside, it was a High Spirit in front of her looking quite happy to be fighting her spirits and was that a hungry look he shot her?!

High Spirits, as far as she knew, went way beyond regular silver key spirits and even golden key ones. They were tougher, could resist far harder blows and more damage than even Loke whom was used to fight brutally. And not only that, just as she told her guild mates the day before, they rarely had contracts with humans because not only were they very hard to find, they more often than not refused to serve the humans and disappeared right in front of them bringing their keys with them to wherever. The magic energy consumption was higher than that of other spirits and this one, this High Dragon felt just like a real dragon with limitless powers.

“Please, be careful” she muttered to her friends. Loke and Capricorn nodded.

“Libra would be helpful here” the Son commented, trident in pose to attack. Beside him, his Mother snorted.

“No, she wouldn’t. That mage is likely strong enough to counter her power.”

“What else do you suggest we do?” Yukino asked worried, drops of cold sweat running down her face.

“The best thing to do for now is see how this develops and do our best” Capricorn answered and not a moment later a thick hard scaled tail swooped down on them all, forcing the spirits to jump out of the way and carry their mages with them.

“I do not believe you are as cowardly as to attack our mages, Ludo” Loke scolded, putting Lucy down further from the battlefield.

“Oh, but I didn’t. I attacked you, not them. It was their fault to stand so close to you in attack range” Ludo snorted. He opened his jaw and quickly launched a gas jet towards them, now in the middle between the two girls and the enemy.

They evaded the attack easily and for a moment Loke thought of the unconscious soldiers littering around. He was surprised to find them all gone from the position he first found them. They have all been moved and laid in organized lines in a patch of grass. There was also a layer of magic covering every single one of them, protecting them from any magic that might come to harm them. He also noticed another thing: the men were not just knocked out, they were all held captive of a strong sleep spell, a kind very similar to the one Mistgun used whenever he went to the guild, the same one that lifted the moment the caster stopped using it. Which meant their opponent was keeping over thirty men asleep with high level magic, summoned a High Spirit with incredible amounts of energy, empowered said spirit infinitely, instantly moved the same over thirty men out of the way in a split second and was now protecting them, and bemusedly he lately noticed Lucy and Yukino, from area attacks and poisonous gasses and other similar elements.

That… meant a hell lot of magic power.

Gray observed almost bored as Ludo lunged himself towards his opponents and the fight unfold. Pisces attacked together and timed well the water shots with Leo’s and Capricorn’s physical attacks. The dragon, on the other hand, mostly dodged the hand to hand combat and countered the water magic with his own long range attack. The match was even for the time being, the four spirits having a hard time getting the upper hand and the High one being very occupied keeping track of four targets that were fairly powerful.

Looking away from the fight, across the battlefield, the raven saw as the two younger celestial mages kept their attention to the summons and were oh so open for easy attacks. She decided to play with them a little.

“You two sure trust the fight will be kept entirely between them” she spoke loudly, bringing their attention to her.

Surprised, Lucy and Yukino snapped their heads down and looked at the enemy. Mentally they kicked themselves for forgetting the other and focusing completely on their spirits in worry.

“It is a given in a fight among celestial mages only the summoned spirits fight” the Sabertooth mage commented, knowing her reason sounded weak even to her ears.

“Too bad I am not exclusively a celestial mage.”

The hooded woman was suddenly right in front of the girls, the air around them dropped in temperature so quickly they only felt it moments later, when both were lying on the hard ground after being hit in the stomach by two well-aimed and powerful punches. They barely had time to gasp, only feel the after pain squirming where they fell.

“Lucy!”

“Yukino!”

Ludo grinned at the distracted fighters. “Bad move” and hit them directly with his now ice spiked body, piercing the four Elliptical Spirits at once and sending them back home.

The dragon flew down and landed a few meters behind his mage. “Took you long enough” she teased him.

He rolled his eyes at her before licking her fondly. “They aren’t weak. And thank you for the boost, Lass.”

Gray nodded, eyes still on the groaning forms of Lucy and Yukino. “Do you want to stay for round two?”

Ludo snorted. “She might call Scorpio. I’d love to hear about a confrontation between him and Orion. That would be something memorable” he laughed and went back home himself.

“Indeed it would” she commented to herself. She was told how her Hunter was a very collected being, but according to his female counterpart, when put in the same space as the scorpion constellation, he lost all his cool and the two dove head on in a brutal fight, almost a brawl.

Ever so slowly, Lucy and Yukino got up onto their feet, holding their middles tightly and grimaces of intense pain marring their faces. For a moment back there, Gray thought of using her ice magic as well to add damage to the punches, but after really accounting her enemies’ physics, she took the idea back, that’d be overkill. She needn’t have more deaths on her hands than strictly necessary. And the Elliptical Spirits might not appreciate her doing so. The younger girls struggled to pull another set of keys out and call their next fighters, but finally they were out.

“Libra, Scorpio and Virgo… That is and interesting combination” still keeping her face covered, Gray commented and called Orion and Euridice to the fight. “Is it true you and Scorpio have a history, Orion?” she asked amused.

The Hunter scowled at the red and white punk spirit and he frowned back. “Bellatrix most likely talked nonsense” Orion said and in the next second the two male spirits snarled at each other and engaged in fight.

Euridice still waited a little more, letting her mage enjoy the amusement of the brawl going all out next to them and also waiting for the opposing female spirits to move first, after all, with her type of magic, it wouldn't matter who acted first. And if there was one thing she understood, it was Gray still didn't want to hurt the other girls too bad.

A shift in gravity told them the pair tired of waiting and Libra started using her magic. Boosted by the dark haired mage, the High Spirit gazed at her opponents and found only one of them in sight. She felt Gray’s mental question if she wanted assistance dealing with Virgo, but she refused. It really was unnecessary. Euridice summoned her lyre and deftly moved her finger over the strings.

At the other side of the field, Lucy and Yukino tensed and gasped when Libra’s magic was cancelled when the user started writhing on the ground and Virgo literally crawled from underground clawing at her own ears. The melody coming from the instrument was so soft the humans barely heard anything, it was almost like the whistle of the calmest breezes on summer. Their mysterious foe still stood like nothing at all was happening, grating on the blonde’s nerves, and even more when she next spoke.

“Let's finish this already and end their pain, I don't like it.”

Next, slim fingers stroked a cord and a high pitch note nearly drove the two golden key spirits to madness, forcing them to retreat to their realm. The musician stopped and a second later, Orion appeared beside her. Side glancing at him, she noted he looked pissed. “Did I interrupt your fun?” She inquired ironically and Orion simply deepened his frown.

“Our Mistress wants this over with” Euridice rolled her eyes at his stern answer and was about to open her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the enemy.

A magical whip flew through the field aimed to the hooded mage. Naturally, the Hunter caught it in reflex and narrowed his eyes to the blonde opponent. He was about to draw sword again when he heard Gray approaching him and his ally. One look at her and he understood her wish to fight directly against the younger girl. He released the weapon and Lucy drew back her whip, while bracing herself to do something she hardly ever did: fight one on one.

“You do know what is going to happen here, Lucy Heartfilia. Why struggle?” the hooded girl asked calmly, nearly annoyed. She walked past her spirits and stopped a few meter from the other pair.

“I am not giving him up! None of them! He is mine!” Lucy announced and magic energy started to flow through her body increasing in intensity by the moment.

On the other side, Gray stared at the irritated mage. The light in those brown eyes gave her a feeling of nostalgia, something like this had happened before. Maybe she and Lucy had a similar discussion before? Or maybe that happened with another of her past friends? Either way, it was an uncomfortable feeling that left a bitter taste in the back of her mouth.

“Did you really just say that?” she asked and added when the other frowned in confusion. “Did you really just claim your Celestial Spirits as though they are nothing more than things for you to possess? And right after you declared they were you friends and not objects.”

Lucy flinched for a very small moment, but recovered her resolve and pulled back her arm, charged with magic, to attack. She didn’t wait longer and flicked her wrist, whip flying through the air right to her opponent’s chest. The woman, though, simply grabbed it and rolled it around her right hand, taking over the weapon in less than a second and freezing it until it shattered into small chunks of useless ice on the ground.  The blonde, for a moment, startled at seeing ice magic again after so long without and was brought back to her reality when a frowning pair of thin and pale lips appeared in front of her before her world tilted and hard pain made itself present on her back once again.

Yukino didn’t stand aside idly. The moment her friend was hit, she charged using the martial techniques her friends from Sabertooth taught her to fight her current enemy. Already expecting the back-up, the hooded mage swiftly changed her stance to face the white-haired girl and deflected all her advances, finishing with a planted kick in her middle, making her fly across the field some meters.

From where she finally stopped kicking up the ground, struggling to raise her head, Yukino saw their enemy turning her attention back to Lucy approaching her calmly. For a moment, she thought the hooded woman would deliver the finishing blow and end her friend’s life, but she merely stood there, in front of Lucy’s body sprawled on the ground, the blonde shooting daggers with her eyes at the other.

“I… I won’t give up!” the blonde insisted and tried to move her arms to do anything, but all efforts were useless, she was completed depleted of energy. “He is mine!”

“Stop that, girl. He never was.”

In the next moment, she disappeared and Yukino felt how her contract with her two Elliptical Spirits was cancelled and both Golden Keys vanished from her possession. The same must’ve happened with Lucy for she started to cry then in grief and pain.

**X779 – Magnolia**

It was late in the night when Kana and Erza headed home and passed a few hallways leading into the wing of the House they shared with Gray. The girls were talking happily and a little drunk after the party-brawl they just left in the guild. Kana once again recalled the epic match between her red haired best friend and their resident she-devil and how it all escalated quickly into an all-out mess when Natsu accidently “offended” Lisanna, according to Mirajane, and the older sister brought him into the fight, leaving Erza to fume for being ignored and retaliate even harder.

When their laughter quieted down, they heard faint music coming from where they knew was their best friend’s preferred studio for practice. Nodding to each other, they tip-toed to the mostly soundproofed door and peered into the glass window. As expected, there was their friend, but in a state that worried them both a lot.

The boy was shirtless, which was the norm, but he was unusually stiff. There was a magic circle beneath him proper to his ice magic, but contrary to his usual summon, this one looked almost permanent and continuously moved, like a dial clock in work. His hands intertwined in a complicated way and whitish blue light emanated from between them, giving his body a more ice like look, even making his dark hair almost white. Surrounding him were many music instruments none of the pair of females had the slightest idea of what they were for, all playing accordingly to the mage’s wish and words made of snow floated in an unseeing tornado.

What put Kana and Erza off though, was the deep frown on Gray’s face. They knew that frown. It was the one he always wore when extremely pissed off by Natsu and his clueless antics with Lisanna. Freed and Laxus once told them it was probably because their cold friend wanted to do something but he couldn’t or didn’t know what to do. It made sense since none of them knew what to do. After all, what does one do to interfere in a three way almost romantic relationship when two of the parts are clueless?

Looking back from the boy, the girls’ eyes met worriedly.

“Should we go in there? He looks like he needs company” Erza asked, wanting nothing more than to burst into the other room and hug her best friend until he cries out all his sorrow.

Kana shook her head. “As much as he needs that, he also needs his alone time to vent. You know Gray, he wouldn’t allow himself to do that with us, even knowing we can take the hits” she argued even though she didn’t like it herself.

The red head nodded and sighed. “I wish we could do something about it. He’s suffered a lot already.”

The brunette agreed silently and started to think of ways to cheer her friend up. Looking back into the room an idea popped up in her mind. She pulled Erza by the arm away from the door and started explaining her plan, quickly having the other agree with her.

The following morning the girls greeted Gray in the kitchen for breakfast and had one request for him.

“You want me to teach you how to sing?” he repeated bewildered.

They nodded enthusiastically. “It only makes sense since we are best friends and work together a lot to share some of our abilities with one another” Erza reasoned, receiving unconvinced stares from both Gray and Kana.

Passing a moment of awkward silence, Kana spoke, “Actually we just want to learn it. You know, even if you don’t use it publically yet, we’d like to share that skill with you, even knowing we’ll never get to your level.”

“There is no ‘yet’ in there, Kana. I will not use it publically. But sure, we have nothing better to do anyways.”

After that, for the next weeks, the trio always put aside a couple of hours of vocal practice, no matter if they were at home or in a mission. Sometimes Evergreen and Freed also joined them, on rare occasions Laxus and Bickslow did too. There were times the girls practiced on their own and it was in one of those times they stumbled upon Gray’s scrap book.

Looking around for anything useful, Kana found a notebook she knew Gray used to make notes of possible lyrics or melodies and decided to take a look. A few pages back from the last, she found notes dusted with ice, permanent ice. She quickly read through the words before hurrying to show Erza them. Once the red head finished they exchanged a quick understanding look and set to work.

In a matter of hours, the pair had a recording of a melody and their vocals trained. They agreed to try giving life to a piece of art they just knew their friend would never do.

Pushing play on the record, electronic music filled the room. Kana started singing, using all her training until now, all the while frowning at the message on the lyrics and how it must’ve pained Gray to the point he actually had to put it all out in the form of words, for she knew he hardly ever complained about himself even when he was little more than eight years old.

_He is mine_  
I’m the only thing on his mind  
He thinks about me all the time  
He got my love on rewind

_Nobody treats him like I do_  
There’s no party I’m not in the booth  
My song keeps his heart in tune like bada dadada dumdum

_He loves me and I love him too_  
He plays me all the night through  
He keeps me spinning and grinning  
And grinning over from you singing lalalalalala

_Everyday lalalalalala_  
He sings with me lalalalalala  
He knows me, he holds me from interphase

_Cause the DJ is mine and girl you’re wasting your time_  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
The DJ is mine  
My baby, my my baby baby (the DJ is mine)  
My baby, my my baby baby  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
The DJ is mine

At this point, Erza took over the vocals as previously agreed. She was worried. All of this was caused by one’s idiocy and there was hardly anything anybody could do. Natsu was too air headed for his own good too often to realize the damage he was doing and Gray wasn’t the kind of person to speak his heart out, especially if it would affect someone else, and the someone else here was too much of an innocent girl in Lisanna for them to get mad at. How unfair was the situation.

_Girl please don’t you even try_  
My baby keeps me by his side  
Even though you keep giving him the eye  
He don’t even notice

_Everyday lalalalalala_  
He sings with me lalalalalala  
He knows me, he holds me from interphase

_Cause the DJ is mine and girl you’re wasting your time_  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
Cause the DJ is is mine and girl you’re wasting your time  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
The DJ is mine

_I’m what he’s listening to, I’m blasting through his headphones_  
It’s me he’s falling in love with, yeah I got his head gone (head gone)  
He can’t even answer the phone  
My music keeps turning him on and on and on and on and on

_He say, she say, I say I own the DJ_  
Stay at the top of his charts I am the air play, flyer than airplanes  
I know you hear me, in case you didn’t, let let me reiterate  
Let me re-, let me re-, let me reiterate

It was then the pair tried harmonizing with each other, having found out days before, actually being told by their friend their pitches mixed well together after little training. This was the first time they actually tried it in practice.

_He is mine_  
I’m the only thing on his mind  
He thinks about me all the time  
He got my love on rewind

_Cause the DJ is mine and girl you’re wasting your time_  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
Cause the DJ is mine and girl you’re wasting your time  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night

_The DJ is mine_  
My baby, my my baby baby (the DJ is mine)  
My baby, my my baby baby  
He only rocks to my music, he loves the way I do it all night  
The DJ is mine

Finishing the song, Kana and Erza looked at each other with frowns marring their faces. What should they do? What _could_ they do?


	9. Voodoo Doll

**09 – Voodoo Doll _by VIXX_**

Looking around, Loke thought this kind of situation was becoming more and more usual. In times past it was very rare for the Twelve Elliptical Zodiac Spirits to be gathered, be it in the Human World or the Celestial Spirit World, but recently, in the past decade, it happened too many times already. The lion gave credit to most of the Golden Keys being in the possession of one Celestial Mage and the only two of the last years being friends, and definitely it was a good thing, even more if he thought about how well those two mages considered the Spirits. Now though, he was concerned.

Silently taking in each of his comrades, he worried for everyone’s safety, he didn’t want a repeat like Karen. Or worse, that their new mage had plans even more dangerous than the evil future Rouge from the dragon episode of the Grand Magic Games. This last hypothesis wasn’t all that farfetched too. This new mage was powerful, too powerful. He was sure, should she want, that woman would be able to invoke an Eclipse Gate by herself if calling so many High Spirits and using another completely different branch of magic at the same time was anything to go by.

“Leo-sama” he heard Aries calling him out of his thoughts.

He looked up to see the Hunter and Huntress, the South Crux, the Dragon, the Hydra, the Lyra, the Cygnus, the Pegasus and the Andromeda High Spirits approaching their gathering. He tensed up at the newcomers’ serious mood and prepared for any kind of possible confrontation.

The nine positioned themselves around them in a way that completely surrounded them. Loke knew it to be a strategic formation, but he wasn’t sure what for. They were supposed to be allies now and were only waiting to meet their new mage to seal a contract, there was no reason for any fights now.

“Elliptical Zodiac Sprits of the Golden Gates” Cruzeiro stepped forward right in front of Leo and Capricorn. The older looking being bowed and his companions followed suit, albeit with a shorter bow.

“High Spirits” the leader of the Zodiac greeted back and he and his friends bowed back in respect.

“We have come in advance, per request of our own to our Miss, to have a little talk with the twelve of you. For precaution sake only, of course.”

“From what we have heard, you like this mage very much” Aquarius commented from her place slightly behind Leo with arms crossed. She knew what it meant to have a new owner with previous Spirits and she wanted to test the waters, no pun intended, to see where they stood.

“We like our Lady” Eurydice said in her calm voice backed by the same protectiveness expected from a mother wyvern. “And we also protect her from anything that could cause her harm. Any harm.”

The Lyra’s statement made the situation crystal clear. Their mage was dear to them and any threats, from outside or inside their ranks would be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly. It could escalate into something potentially dangerous.

“It is against Celestial Spirits’ nature to want to harm their mage” Capricorn said in his deadpan voice. Everyone agreed with that, it was unnecessary to be said aloud and somehow the twelve knew it was not the kind of physical harm the others were talking about.

“Indeed, that is correct. But it is also possible that emotional harm is caused even if unconsciously” Orpheus replied evenly, putting many of them to think what exactly he meant. And Aries asked so.

“Orpheus means you can possibly trigger bad emotions and bad memories in our Lady” Andromeda said. “Lord Leo specifically could make our Lady hurt.”

Narrowing his eyes, Loke replied offended, “Why would I want to hurt anyone? I don't deny I care for Lucy very deeply, but that doesn't mean I’ll hold any grudge against your mage, even more now knowing she isn't a bad one.”

“We do know that” Bellatrix sighed. “Your values are not in question here. We do have to be wary of what your reactions might cause though. Our Mistress is very perceptive and anything could cause her to miss-conclude things about herself.”

“The Lass has suffered enough in her life. We will not let a possibly platonic romantic interest set her off” Hydra growled in warning.

Picking up on the little information released, Sagittarius inquired, “We understand you love your mage dearly as much as we do Lucy, but something doesn’t match here -moshi moshi! The last person Leo-sama was interested into has been gone for months, a dear friend of us all. And we have yet to know the real identity of our new owner. Does she have an interest on Leo-sama?”

Tilting his head slightly, Pegasus answered, “Not quite. Our Lady has been meaning to meet Leo-dono ever since we told her of his interest on her, so he could tell her about her previous life.”

Some of the Golden Key Spirits were about to ask what the winged horse was talking about when a new voice, smooth, feminine and strong made its owner known. “What you twelve are not understanding and what the nine are not exposing is a very simple information.”

From the stairs leading to a lower level of the plateau all twenty one Spirits were standing came the same hooded mage that controlled their last battle entirely. The woman was dressed in the exact same way and emanated the same aura as before, which alerted the Golden Key Spirits. Humans couldn’t stay in the Celestial Spirit World under normal conditions. Were her clothes from their world? That was how their friends from Fairy Tail we able to stay in their visit. But there was also the issue that humans couldn’t simply come here without the Celestial King’s expressed permission! Had she earned his trust already?

The Mother of Pisces stepped ahead in her no-nonsense way and requested, “Could you give us that information then? And introduced yourself? I, for one, would like to know the face and name of my new owner.”

Silence installed among them for a moment. They saw the woman purse her lips in dislike then she raised her hands and took off the hood, revealing short dark hair, snow pale skin and sharp eyes. Gasps of surprise understandably resonated from ten of the twelve Elliptical Zodiac Spirits and the nine High Spirits subtlety prepared themselves in case there was a bad second reaction.

“It can’t be…”

“That information is my identity: I am Gray Fullbuster, born in X766, in Ishvan of the Northen Continent, initially an ice mage and currently suffering of amnesia with memories of only my first eight years of life” the dark haired mage calmly explained, closely keeping track of each of the Spirits reactions. There was surprise, some mixture with joy, others suspicious, but the one the mattered most was Leo’s unbelieving expression. It felt like he didn’t want to accept at the same time he wanted to believe. She tilted her head slightly. “Is there any ways I can prove that to you other than my magic and words?”

This time expectant silence filled the situation, all waiting for the lion’s reaction to the revelation.

Loke fixed his gaze on the face before him. It was the same hair, the same eyes, the same skin, mouth and nose, not even the length of lashes had changed. The scar received on Galuna Island was there innocently in place above the left eyebrow. The same undertone of sadness and loneliness well camouflaged in those deep blue eyes between the cold and hardness from the developed ice magic was still present. The woman emanated the same refreshing air as his dearest friend and the thing that held his attention since their fight, her voice was the very same one from when Gray sang in his female version.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he balled his hands and looked seriously into the young mage’s eyes. “How could you prove your identity if the memories you have are from before I met who you claim to be?”

Gray looked back at the suited Spirit thinking seriously about his question.

When she brought everyone to the Celestial Spirit World, her friends asked her to give them some time to talk with the other Spirits about this situation. She already knew why they wanted to do so, but was uncertain if they would approach them kindly, she knew many ways how the conversation could go wrong. So the request was granted under the condition she could listen to them, without interfering of course.

Quietly listening, she started to think on how to best confront Leo about her current situation. First she’d have to convince him of her identity. Then, and if the rumor of him having any attraction to her old self were true, there were chances he could help her solve the problem that her lack of memories was proving. The problem was how to do that.

According to her quick research in Crocus, Fairy Tail guild’s mark was the same one she still had on her right breast, which was a curious case. That wasn’t to say it was foolproof. Anyone with a little bit of magic could easily create a fake guild mark and make it look authentic to most. She’d need a more personal argument, but so far as she knew there was nothing in her favor.

Locking gazes with the male something suddenly popped into her mind. Letting the dislodged images play in her mind’s eyes she opened her mouth.

 _Call me when your heart is aching, tell me everything, who do you want?_  
Want me to turn back time? Want me to give you my heart?  
When you can’t forget, you should take

Gray half muttered half sang the words thoughtfully, attention still on the scenes playing in her head.

In front of and around her most Spirits looked confused and curiously towards her. They knew she sang, a lot and very well, but none of them knew those lyrics. On the other hand, Leo paled and froze, figuratively speaking. His eyes widened and jaw dropped.

“What?” he gasped.

The woman turned her attention back to the lion and held her chin in thought. “That song… You wrote me that… Some weeks after we met, didn’t you?” she asked looking up at the ginger haired male.

Forcing his mouth closed, Loke narrowed his eyes again, this time in suspicion. “That happened after the first mission I went with Gray after joining Fairy Tail.”

“It was also kept a secret between us” Gray nodded. “Never to be recorded and most definitely for no other person to know aside from us. It was a sort of bond to our trust.”

For the following seconds, dark brown held dark blue in tense silence until Leo’s face softened in relief and he smiled tentatively. “Gray?”

“Yes.”

“What the hell happened with you?” he asked walking closer and hugging his friend tightly to his chest.

Gray was surprised at first by the reaction, but soon the warmth, one that was curiously familiar relaxed her and she hugged him back. “It’ll sound very crazy.”

**X781 – Magnolia**

Loke was enjoying the afternoon lazing around the guild hall, drinking and with the company of two girls from town who were all over his charms. Ever since he joined Fairy Tail little more than a month before his life became somehow lighter, easier to go by and help wait for when his time would finally be up. By now he was considered a member of the mismatched family that was Fairy Tail and he in turn saw the mages of the guild the same way, one ice mage in special.

“Hey, Loke” he looked up to see who called him and was met with none other than Erza Scarlet.

He hadn’t interacted with the red haired Knight more than a handful times purely out of cordiality. Now that he looked closely at her, he noticed her potential beauty for when she’d be a full grown woman. Yes, this girl would be very beautiful. Not that he would actually want to have anything romantic with her, he knew his boundaries. She was a dear friend, like Aquarius maybe, powerful, pretty and trustworthy. That of course didn’t stop him from playfully flirting with her.

“Oh, hello, Erza! Have you come to join us in this lovely afternoon?” he draped an arm around her shoulder and flirty took her hand in his free one starting to lead her to the couch where other two girls were looking at him with sensual smirks.

On her part, Erza was shocked by his actions. The Knight had been talking with her team, Gray and Kana, about an S-class mission she wanted to go with them and the boy suggested they call the new guy to join them, so far as they have heard he wasn’t to be looked down and for what he knew, Loke was a pretty nice guy too. So, as the S-class mage of the group she took on the job of inviting their possible forth party. What was definitely not expected was this development.

“Don’t you dare!” Erza hit him right in the middle of his face, making him fly all the way across the hall. Next she was already on him again to complete the punishment for both doing immoral things to her and even thinking about getting close to her best friend.

The red haired girl knew she wasn’t the best at relationships, but she wasn’t blind or dumb. It was very clear, from the moment this ginger haired man came to their family he was interested in Gray, it was obvious. And she could relate to him in a way. Gray was the one who insisted and helped her open up to the rest of the guild, no matter how many times he was beaten for it by her own hand. So Erza, as the ice mage’s self-appointed older sister, had to protect him from any more harm. One idiot was enough as it was.

“Hey, Erza! Calm down!” two pairs of arms held her away from the fallen man. After some calming breaths she recognized her two best friends and calmed down, frowning at Loke.

“I changed my mind, Gray! He isn’t as nice as you said he was. I forbid him from coming close to you!” she announced to him and the ice mage sighed. Beside him, Kana snickered.

“Is he that bad?” the brunette asked, understanding plenty what the third party of their team was talking about.

“Yes” Erza declared and turned to her honorary brother. “He’s not good enough for you”

“Don’t start with it, you two” Gray grumbled covering half of his embarrassed blushing face with a hand. “That was a joke, Erza, you do know that.”

The boy walked to the mess where Loke was laying and pulled him up by an arm. The older guy let himself be manhandled while recovering from the abrupt assault. It was amazing, he hadn’t felt a similar dread against some of his most powerful enemies.

“Please, save me from that monster” he muttered to the young mage holding him dramatically.

“Oh, stop that, man. And stand up properly. There’s something we wanted to ask you.”

“If I’d like to go out on a date with any of you? Well, certainly you and Kana, I’m not so sure any more about Erza…” Loke dusted himself and stood straight, completely ignoring the trails of blood trickling down from his hairline, nose and lip.

Ignoring the incredulous faces and snickering from the other mages and patrons littering around the guild hall, Kana rolled her eyes. “No, you dumb shit. We are going on a mission and Gray suggested we invited you because we feel you still have to settle into the guild.”

The new member turned to her seriously and muddled over her words. He looked back at Gray, who was waiting patiently for his answer with crossed arms and a shirt short from the last time he looked at him, and Erza, who refused to look at him but still paid attention to the conversation and pouted like the growing girl she was.

It was true he hadn’t created any closer bond with anyone of the guild yet and it has been more than a month already since he joined. Considering the mages he was talking to were part of the youngest generation of the guild, it made some sense they’d feel like something was wrong seeing they were all very close to one another, even having their preferred group to hang out with. Though there was a very good reason he didn’t want to get close to them, especially the younger ones. He wouldn’t be able to be with them for long and young people, children and teenagers were easier to get hurt by the loss of someone.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to come with you” he finally answered.

“Oh, really?” the brunette girl arched an eyebrow and cocked her hips. “Give us a good reason and we’ll let you not come with us” she smirked at him. Most of the people that joined the guild in recent years didn’t give her much credit, but she had exceptional skill for reading people face to face and through her cards. Once she tried to get a reading of Loke in her cards and had the strangest response ever, it was almost like he wasn’t human, but she was certain of one thing: he didn’t want to be left alone as he liked to portray, and once that information was confirmed with her best friend, Gray wouldn’t let the guy follow the lone way and Kana influenced by the ice mage jumped into the same boat.

Loke tried to think of a good reason to decline the invitation that wouldn’t reveal the truth of his situation or hurt these teens’ feelings, but he was coming short. The argument of him not wanting to go also wasn’t reason enough, mostly because it wasn’t true. He actually wanted to go and spend time with the boy that convinced him to come and join this amazing guild, but there was the issue of the uncertain future. Finally he sighed and smiled in defeat at the trio, “You win, I’ll go.”

Kana’s smirk grew and she clasped a hand on his shoulder with more strength than he thought she had. “Good! We’ll meet at the train station in two hours, is that good with you?”

“Sure. What is this mission about, anyway?” It would be good to know what to prepare for.

“We’ll be hunting some wild monsters while protecting a village” Erza answered, finally turning back to their new teammate. “You better behave or I will personally see to your punishment” she warned forcefully poking him on the chest and glaring him down even though he was a good head taller than her.

Loke could only gulp and nod frantically at her. Out of the corner of his eyes, the guy saw Gray yawn and wave at them, saying he’d meet them at the station and leave the hall. Kana and Erza took their time cleaning the mess the red haired made when beating Loke and finished the formalities with Master Makarov before going home to prepare their bags as well. He still lingered in the bar for one more drink before heading his way too, thinking about what just happened.

Kana, Gray and Erza formed one of the strongest team of Fairy Tail with the Strauss siblings losing in experience for the Raijinshuu. They were also the first ones of the youngest generation of mages to join Fairy Tail and ever since their first meeting they struck a very close friendship, according to the other adults. Erza has become S-class the last year and still trained and went in missions with her two friends. The trio was also very close friends with the other kids, Natsu, Levy, Mirajane, Lisanna and Elfman but still kept many things to their little group. He wondered why they would open up to someone now and so out of the blue. It couldn’t be that Gray felt responsible because he was the one to introduce Loke to the guild. That’d be ridiculous.

Two hours later, the four mages met and claimed a cabin for their use. Erza explained the specifics of the mission and together they came up with strategies and back-up plans for many different scenarios. Loke was impressed by the level of maturity the trio of teens showed and how easily they accepted his input and adapted their usual combination to fit his magic into the plans.

Finishing their planning, Gray declared he was going to sleep until their next stop and got comfortable on the seat he shared with Loke, falling asleep not a minute afterwards. On the other seat the girls sighed making the older guy look up at them questionably.

“What happened?” he asked confused. Just now they were all okay and even joking.

“Gray had a relapse last night, that’s the main reason we are going in this mission, to have some time away from the others at the guild” Erza said crossing her arms and frowning.

“Relapse? Of what?”

“His relationship with Natsu” Kana stated simply, closely observing the other guy’s reaction.

The guy had heard mentions of something between Gray and Natsu before, he put two and two together and didn’t take long to understand there must’ve been a kind of relationship, more than friendship going on between them and Natsu had screwed up royally and still didn’t know it. And it happened a good while ago. What he didn’t know yet were the details of said relationship.

“If you would let me into the loop, could you tell me what this is all about?” he asked the pair of girls. “I understand Gray has feelings for Natsu from what I could observe. From what I’ve heard they had something, but apparently Natsu messed it up?”

The girls stared him down, considering telling him or not, then with a quick side glance they nodded. It was Kana who explained. “Four years ago, when Natsu first joined the guild they started sort of dating.”

“What? But weren’t they only kids?”

The girls shrugged. “Natsu’s always been an air head. Once he and Gray became close friends, he announced to the whole guild they would be mates, because apparently his father said something about you having to mate with someone you like and trust, and Natsu, being the stupid innocent kid he is just decided he was going to mate with Gray once they were of age and Master allowed them” the brunette told him.

Loke blushed a little at the idea of mating and its true meaning and then tried to imagine the younger versions of the two mages in question doing it… No, it was just wrong. “What was Gray’s reaction then?” he shot a glance at the sleeping mage, whom he now noticed looked really tired.

“So far as we understand of his past, all his beloved people are gone and he has yet to move on” Erza continued. “So when Natsu innocently declared he loved Gray and they were going to be together forever, Gray froze on the spot, blushed the hardest I have ever seen him doing and hit Natsu.”

“Later he told us he didn’t know what to do and we knew he liked Natsu back” Kana added and deepened her frown. “Thinking back now, they did make a cute couple.”

“They were the best of friends too, never really fought each other” Erza commented thoughtfully.

“Wow… Then what changed?” Loke wanted to know. It didn’t make much sense. If the two boys had a nice relationship, why would they fight so hard nowadays?

“The Strauss came” the card mage sighed.

“Kana…”

“I know, Erza, we had this conversation before a lot of times already. I don’t blame them coming or how much Lisanna took to Natsu instantly, but you can’t deny that because of that Natsu started to spend all the time with Lisanna and made Gray hurt because of that. You even started fighting with Mira after asking her to ask Lisanna to give Natsu some time and she laughed to your face.”

The other girl huffed, “That was awfully rude of her!”

The girls started bickering amicably after that about silly things and Loke retreated to his thoughts to process all the information Kana possibly intentionally gave him.

In his mind he understood the situation as Natsu promising Gray the one thing he was most hesitant of then doing exactly the thing he was most afraid of, in other words, the ice mage was promised to be given someone to love without fear only for that person to toss him aside like he mattered nothing, all because he was stupid, simply and plainly stupid. It was unbelievable. He didn’t know if things would’ve been better if it were intentional, he really didn’t know.

The only aspect of the whole situation he didn’t understand was why Gray would have a relapse of that relationship. If it happened when the Strauss siblings joined the guild, it has been a while. He asked so aloud.

“Gray doesn’t know how to deal with it” Erza answered simply.

“Think about it as our ice head here having unrequited love for Natsu and not knowing what to do. We can’t really blame Lisanna, she’s completely guiltless here. Natsu isn’t likely to realize what he’s done. And it isn’t in Gray nature to confront Natsu about it, just so you know” Kana listed annoyed with the situation. “We have tried giving him alternatives, but he told us, all of us, Laxus, Freed, Ever and Bickslow included, not to interfere. And somehow he just can’t muster the guts to pull Natsu aside and talk to him. You can imagine how frustrating it is.”

Loke was hit by the same confusion of when Master Makarov told him things about his kids when he first came to Fairy Tail. “Why did you tell me all of that if it’s such a personal matter? A few hours ago Erza was beating the hell out of me for not being good enough for Gray.”

The girls sighed again and this time looked at him with strange understanding in their eyes. “Because you like him as he needs and care for him as much as we do.”

Three days later, the quartet had accomplished most of the quest already, missing only the alpha monster of the family that had been tormenting a village. The rest of the pack had been swiftly dealt with among the four and now they were having a little problem facing the last one and its last remaining offspring.

The problem was Erza’s swords weren’t strong enough to pierce the monster’s skin, Kana’s magic also didn’t work on it, Gray didn’t have enough time to conjure his ice magic effectively because of its speed and Loke’s didn’t cause more than a little annoyance that only irritated the creature even more. In sum, things weren’t looking good for the team of mages.

Once again having their attacks deflected, Gray remembered something that happened the day before. They were fighting off a horde of these monsters from attacking a family of travelers when the little daughter yelled in a high pitch that made the attackers flinch momentarily enough for the mages to bring them into safety. Nearly smacking himself for forgetting that information, he quickly turned back to his companions.

“Loke, you still have enough magic to pull a powered up punch?” he shouted the other guy.

“Yeah, but it’d have to be on the mark and this thing is too fast for that!” the blond guy shouted back.

“Good! Erza, Kana, prepare to resonate!” the ice mage grinned and in a split moment the girls understood what he meant and got in position. Kana prepared some cards and Erza equipped two broad swords, both standing beside Gray and waiting for his sign. “Focus, Loke! When you get an opening, shoot!”

Loke was about to ask what he was going to do, still following the instructions out of instinct, when Gray created a big and complex ice tube. Immediately, Kana used her cards to invoke a gush of wind and Erza hit her weapons together, making them screech. The wind forced the screech into the tubes and the channel amplified the sound, creating a loud and irritating high pitch to resonate through the forest they were in. The monster flinched and paralyzed, giving the older guy the best opportunity to attack. And he charged.

Within seconds, silence once again installed as the quartet gathered around the fallen animal, positively dead. Loke inspected the ice creation and was impressed to find it had many cravings inside it and other structures that helped giving the sound the desired effect. He turned back to his teammates that were poking at the monster and wondering if they could use it for anything.

“How did you know what to do to create that sound?” he asked approaching the others. The trio turned to look at him in confusion.

Then it hit them. “Oh! You didn’t know Gray here is a music genius, did you?” Kana grinned and pulled said boy into a side hug.

“I am not a music genius, Kana! I just had a great teacher” he rolled his eyes and disentangled from the still grinning girl.

“Well, fact is you are a great musician and has been teaching us a lot of thing for a long time now” Erza stated nodding to herself.

The dark haired boy grimaced at his two female friends. That wasn’t something he really liked to advertise.

“Really?” Loke asked surprised and enthusiastic. “Would you teach me too? I had some friends that were great musicians and I picked some things with them, but it’d be nice to learn some more.”

The ginger haired male had come to terms with his feelings about these young mages. For the past days spent in close quarters with them he couldn’t help but the swayed by their antics. They clearly were very different when only the three of them than when with the rest of the guild for understandably reasons. Here they could be their true selves, express their insecurities and know there was someone trustworthy to back them up whenever was necessary. He couldn’t help but want to get to know them better. So now with this good excuse presented, he wasn’t about to lose it.

Gray stared at the man unbelieving. “Why is it that all of you guys want to learn how to sing? Come on, I don’t understand what could you all possibly be interested in!”

Albeit saying that, the ice mage agreed to include their new friend in their music practices. Loke proved to be a fast learner and have some knowledge of the basics, which helped a lot. He also made a great friend once he started to open up more with the others and Gray often caught himself sharing drinks or just chatting with him. On the other hand, Loke learnt more about his new friends. He learnt about the trio’s history in Fairy Tail and every time he stopped to think, he found himself more protective of the ice mage, instincts of his true self, of being a Celestial Spirits who wants to protect their mage awakened.

It was strange, he realized, that after so long he had developed such feelings for someone that wasn’t even of the same field of magic. One day, thinking these things over, he decided to try his hand on his new skill, and a habit he knew Gray had, and by the end of the day he had a satisfactory product. Taking advantage of his new freedom to come and go to the House, he left a little unpacked present for his friend to find.

It had been a week since coming back from the monster hunting and Loke’s first musical lessons when Gray decided to tide his studio up a little and put some order to the mess of paper sheets lying around. People might not believe it, but he liked his things organized and even separated everything by section, so in the midst of shuffling through some lyric notes he caught sight of a stack of papers written in a handwriting he wasn’t very familiar with. Picking that up, he scanned the words forming verses and at every new line read his eyes widened more until he was trembling so hard he couldn’t focus on the words anymore.

The boy put the notes back on the table and turned sharply to the folders stacked on a bookshelf and pulled them out one by one, searching for some old things he never threw away and he just knew matched perfectly with his new discovery. Finally he found what he wanted and quickly studied what he had on it. Nodding to himself, he produced a new sheet and pencil and started to write, scratching things now and then until an hour later he was satisfied with the result. Sitting back and playing notes in his head, he felt overwhelmed, and finally realized who the author of this was. He needed to talk with Loke.

The next day, he called the older guy for a walk and headed to some secluded part of Magnolia that still wasn’t too out of the way. They made small talk until the ice mage thought it appropriate to reveal his real intentions. He pulled a note book from his coat (which he still surprisingly had on) and handed the other mage.

“I found this among my things when I was cleaning yesterday. Can you recognize?”

Loke opened the book and started reading through very familiar words. His facial expression didn’t change, but his heart did skip up a beat. “You matched it with a melody” he decided to comment, reading through the song notes.

“Yeah, it was surprising how it fit well. Wrote that a while back when testing a new style.”

“Hmm, it does fit.”

They continued a little in silence until Gray gave in and sighed. “What was that all about, Loke? I know it was you who wrote and left it in my room.”

They stopped at a side street deserted save of them and faced each other. Loke looked seriously into Gray’s eyes and the ice mage felt nervous, really nervous.

“It’s just as it says” the ginger haired male stated.

Gray frowned and sighed, not knowing what to say.

“Kana and Erza told me about you and Natsu” Gray shot his friend a startled look only to find the other still staring at him seriously. “Tell me truthfully, why do you still pin after him?” he asked frowning, a cross between confused and irritated.

“I don’t know” the younger male exhaled. “I really don’t know. I know it’s stupid, but I just can’t forget that idiot and his potential to be nice and good.”

“Or his infinite potential to be stupid.” They snorted at the truth in that joke. “But really Gray, have you ever tried maybe having another relationship and try to move on from him?”

The other looked away and it was answer enough for Loke. The older one stepped closer and securely but lightly put a hand on the other’s shoulder and waited until slightly flushed cheeks were visible to him to speak again. “I like you, Gray. I like you a lot, possibly ever since we met in that train. Why not give us a try?”

Dark blue eyes stared into his in surprise, searching for something, for something that was not there, for any signs of jest. He found none.

No, Loke had decided on that night in the mission he was going to throw caution out the proverbial window and do his damnest to dissipate that cloud of pain installed in his friend’s heart, even if a little, even if later he would be the cause to even more pain. He didn’t care, he’d let the girls curse him endlessly into his death as long as he managed to relieve this ice mage right in front of him from one of the worst pain he knew, unrequited love. And he was going to punch Natsu right in the middle of his face the first chance he got.

On the other hand, Gray had no idea what to do. Inside he was panicking bad. Loke had just confessed to him. The damn guy confessed to be interested in him, to want a relationship with him and clearly showed signs of wanting to beat the guy he still liked for who-the-fuck-knew-what-reason! And if those words, the ones he adapted and joined to a melody, were really what he felt, the younger boy really didn’t know what to do. It was all too overwhelming! And there was still that infuriating part of him that still wanted the dragon slayer.

“I…” he muttered. “I don’t know… I don’t know what to do…”

Loke smiled sadly and understandingly. “Let me propose you a solution then” he waited for the other to nod before continuing. “We continue as we are, friends, just good friends. If you ever want to try anything, just ask, I’ll gladly do it. And if you ever need a shoulder to lean on or someone to vent your frustration with or just spend time and do nothing, you call me.”

Gray mulled his friend’s words in his head. It sounded good, too good for him and not at all for the other. It was unfair.

“Maybe” the older male replied to his comment. “But it is something I want to do. It’ll be good for you and I’ll get to spend time with you out of missions and social gatherings.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am” Loke smiled at him reassuringly and the ice mage finally nodded in agreement and hugged his friend tightly in gratitude.

** XxXxXxXxXxXxX **

After an hour of explaining, Loke was sitting cross-legged with his head dug into his hands massaging his temples. Aries, Libra, Gemini, Sagittarius and Scorpio were worried and confused sitting around him. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Aquarius, Pisces and Capricorn were thoughtful. Orion, Bellatrix, Orpheus, Eurydice and Andromeda quietly waited. Ludo, Hydra and Cruzeiro were practically dozing off and Pegasus was enjoying his long waited massage by the hands of Gray, who waited patiently for Leo to process all the information he was just presented.

“You died… again! In that mission to the north” the lion grumbled still not looking up.

“Yes” the young woman calmly answered.

“And your body dissolved into magical particles as did that ice demon.”

“Correct.”

“A month later your body was reformed and you can use all types of magic now.”

“Yes.”

“But you woke up without a single memory, not even of your own identity.”

“Which was annoying.”

“Then you met these High Spirits and decided to look for me because they said I knew you.”

“And that you had deep feelings for me.”

“Then you met your father, recovered eight years of memories and defeated the Dark Guild Tartarus, the two of you plus your Spirits.”

“And met Zeref again and he ran away again.”

“And now because of some bad misunderstanding you own all twelve Golden Keys.”

“And we still have to finish our contract.”

Leo grunted under his breath and finally raised his head, dragging his hands all over his face – thankfully his glasses were put aside when he dropped his head. His dark eyes looked directly into Gray’s dark blue.

“You are not kidding me.”

“Why would I joke about something like that? It’s too much trouble for a practical joke.”

“You also said you remembered a name and feelings linked to that name” Capricorn decided to change the course of the conversation to reboot his leader and friend’s mind. He needed a distraction from the shock.

Gray nodded, finishing her massage. “Natsu. That name invokes in me joy, sadness, anger, bittersweet happiness and betrayal defeat. It’s a complicated and not nice assortment of feelings I’d rather not feel” she frowned.

“Well, that is pretty much what you felt for him before” Loke commented, finally getting over his previous state. He crossed his arms and regarded his amnesiac friend. “So what do you want to do next?”

“I was hoping you would be able to help me understand who I am” the mage said placing her elbows on her knees.

The lion thought about the request. “There are some ways we could approach this situation, I’m not sure which would be best…” They could try some magic to directly awaken the rest of Gray’s memories, but that could be dangerous. They also could try going to Fairy Tail and talk with Master Makarov and some of the others to see if together they could find a solution. There still was the issue of Gray having to come back to the guild because there was no way they wouldn’t want the ice mage back, as happened with Lisanna after Edolas. They could try visiting trigger places that were important to Gray, there was even Lyon whom they could talk to and would be very pleased to learn his younger sibling was back among them.

“Why not try Fairy Tail?” Capricorn suggested. “They will certainly welcome you both and maybe find something useful to do about your memory, Gray-sama.”

“They could also cause more harm and stress to our Lady” Orpheus argued, though he didn’t have much against the guild, he also didn’t want Gray to hurt more. The last time, when she nearly broke down from the loss of Silver was one too many times.

“There is reason to that option, though” Aquarius spoke. “Basically all of Gray’s life was spent with that guild after you moved from the North, right?” she asked the mage in question, who was thoughtful.

“Apparently I did. And that would make sense, yes…” she wandered, making the spirits look at her curiously. Her voice sounded like she was thinking of something that had nothing to do with the current conversation.

“What are you thinking about, Lass?” Ludo asked inching closer to her.

“It’s just that the way you nine are acting illustrates the song Leo made me very well.”

The other Elliptical Spirits looked from their leader to their new allies back and forth a few times before Gemini floated towards the lion. “How did the song continue –piri piri?”

Loke looked at the mage in front of him and found her smirking.

 _Call me when your heart is aching, tell me everything, who do you want?_  
Want me to turn back time? Want me to give you my heart?  
When you can’t forget, you should take

She sang again, foregoing any instrument and displaying all her vocal abilities the lion realized were intact as at the last time he saw him. So he continued where she left off and had her chorusing and alternating with him every now and then.

 _Trust me and repeat after me, “He will come back to me”_  
Time is on your side, all you have to do is wait  
I’ll make him cry as much as he made you cry   
Tick tock, Tick tock, may it be fulfilled

_If I can’t have you, I will just live for you  
If it’s you, I’m ready to get hurt as much as I can_

_Look carefully at what I’m going to do now_  
If it’s you I don’t care about saving my body  
Just say the name, whoever it is, I will bring them all here  
Tick tock, Tick tock, may it be fulfilled

 _If you can’t be embraced, just step on me and stand up so that no one can mistreat you_  
Whatever reason may it be, you need me  
Because I will become a doll who will fight for you  
I will tightly shut my painful eyes, for you, I will run  
Please, just don’t leave me  
I will bring you everything you want  
Tick tock, Tick tock, may it be fulfilled

_Even if you get ruined by the tips of your fingers  
I am here to shed all the tears of the world_

_Look carefully at what I’m going to do now_  
If it’s you I don’t care about saving my body  
Just say the name, whoever it is, I will bring them all here  
Tick tock, Tick tock, may it be fulfilled

_Should I go, should I stay, nobody knows  
Should I go, should I stay, nobody knows_

_Yeah, Open the doors of hell_  
You sinners who made her shed tears, may you shed tears of blood  
Sing the song of curses, tell me about your hidden anger  
My body becomes a sacrifice for you  
I will sacrifice myself for your happiness

 _Just seeing you smile is enough for me_  
I’ll do everything that you want  
Even if my remaining life decreases

 _Whoever it is, look carefully, don’t make her cry, I have nothing to lose_  
The sadness in my heart that no one knows about  
Tick tock, Tick tock, may it all disappear

_Should I go, should I stay, nobody knows  
Should I go, should I stay, nobody knows_

_May it all be fulfilled_

 


	10. New face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... How long has it been? Seriously, I am terribly sorry for this long wait. I almost feel like Togashi and his long hiatuses... only without his fame and splendid work...
> 
> Anyways, finally! Finally, we have a new chapter on, and for all of you who still follow and read my baby, thank you so much. I hope this chapter is at least good enough for how long it took me to come up with it, yet I'm still not satisfied with it =( Oh well...
> 
> On an actual note, I had trouble witht he lyrics of this song, beacuse I didn't really like the translation from the official M/V's caption and I don't know Korean to be able to translate it myself, so I had to search for one that made sense to me. I didn't save the video nor the channel, so I can't tell you guys which one it was, but it is on YouTube and all credit goes for them (the channel) though I can't say which.
> 
> Enough of my rambling!
> 
> Please enjoy your reading and hopefully this chapter!

**10 – New Face _by PSY_**

**X791 – Crocus, after the Grand Magic Games**

Dark eyes surveyed the assembled people, mages that not two days ago were fighting to near death against one another, and now found friends in the most unexpected figures. Lyon Vastia turned to his side and smiled at his guild’s Sky God Slayer interacting with Fairy Tail’s Sky Dragon Slayer as though they have known each other for year instead of a week. It was nice to see his friends having so much fun.

The door to the ballroom opened and in walked his baby brother and, if he was not mistaken, a Celestial Spirit, the one that liked to flirt with all the girls. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the one that called them all there.

Gray and Loke took in their companions.

There were Erza, Kana, Wendy, Carla, Juvia, Gajeel, Lily, Evergreen, Freed and Bixslow from Fairy Tail; Lyon, Cheria, Yukka and Toby from Lamia Scale; Kagura, Milliana, Arania and Rasley from Mermaid Heel; Bacchus from Quatro Cerberus; Ichiya, Hibiki, Eve and Ren from Blue Pegasus; and Sting, Rouge, Lector, Frosch and Rufus from Sabertooth.

Perfect.

“All right, everyone!” the younger ice mage began. “I called all of you here for one reason: emergency performance!”

Understandably, most people present was confused by the statement. Erza, Kana, Evergreen, Freed and Bixslow smirked in glee.

“Ooh, it has been a while!” the soul mage whistled in joy.

“Do you care to explain?” Kagura requested in her no-nonsense tone. She made up with Erza for the epic fight they had, and by extend was in an amicable relationship with the other Fairies, but she still didn’t like to be made fun of.

“Absolutely!” Loke answered in Gray’s place. “You guys from Blue Pegasus might remember that one special performance I participated in with Icy Fairy, yes?” the mentioned men nodded, processing the information. It didn’t take too long for the dots to connect and the Spirit grinned. “Well, we are going to do something similar, but completely different.”

“The King personally requested a last minute performance” Gray explained. “He said it didn’t have to be anything big, but we have magic and we are going to do something awesome. And you all are going to participate.”

In other words, everyone here was going to take part in the unofficial Icy Fairy comeback!

“I sincerely hope you are fans and put good use of your fighting skills in dancing, because if you are more trouble than help I’ll kick you out!”

Gray said that with the same dreadful aura Erza often displayed when dealing with misbehaving members of her guild, but throughout the whole three days of rehearsals, he always took his time to privately tutor anyone who had any difficulties to perfection. His guild mates already knew he would do that, after all, their favorite brother was a softie in heart.

Thus in three days, the chosen mages had the best and heaviest booty camp drill by the number one idol in the magical community to this day even after his seven-year disappearance. They had the chance of learning from the source all moves from the best hits and in a special overtime schedule, one new song that would be the mark of a most splendid comeback, all behind the back of said idol’s brother.

The big night came sooner than anyone expected, especially considering most people were still hurt from the last battle against the dragons, but they made do. Also, they couldn’t forget before the surprise performance there was going to have a celebratory dance, all sponsored by the king himself.

It was during a slow dance with Wendy, Gray noticed her signs of nervousness. Smoothly, he continued leading her and asked lightly, “If you are worried about the show, relax. Everything will be perfect.”

The little girl startled then smiled at her big brother figure. She should have known he’d be able to notice, he did the same thing in one of her first missions as a Fairy Tail mage they went just the two of them plus Carla. “But what if I mess up? I’ve never performed anything, and even in battle I can be such a clumsy person.”

At that, the boy simply smiled and spun her expertly. “As I said, everything will be perfect. You and Cheria are my most important dancers of tonight. I wouldn’t trade you for anyone.”

Wendy brightened at him and relaxed, finally enjoying the dance with her brother to the fullest.

A few more moments passed in jokes, light conversations and lots of fun until Gray was approached by the royal family. Kana, Erza and Loke, who were by his side, stood to attention as well.

“Good night, mages” the King greeted amicably. “I expect everything is ready for the show, Icy Fairy?”

Gray grinned under their gazes. “Of course. We only need to gather everyone outside to begin.”

“Why outside?” Princess Hisui asked curiously. “Isn’t the ballroom appropriate?”

“Frankly, the ballroom is awesome and has great acoustics, but the citizens can’t come in here and even if they could, there isn’t enough room for everyone” Gray explained, faking a helpless sigh. “We already put everyone in chaos because of the evacuation, not to mention, it would be wrong if we let the people watch the games and not enjoy the ending show, you know. So we are doing it outside.”

“But we haven’t prepared any structure of anything!” the King argued, but the ice mage’s smirk distracted his mind from calculating the resources needed to a last minute stage.

“You are forgetting one very important thing, Mr. King: we are mages and I am the Icy Fairy. I don’t need a pre-established stage to put on a show.”

The king and princess looked at him surprised, confused beyond Fairy Tail’s antics, but decided to trust him, after all, he was from Fairy Tail.

Notice of the party moving outside quickly reached all ears and the gathered mages and staff brought the energy to the entrance of the castle, where most of the population of the capital city was already gathered. Muttering of “We were told there was going to be a special show” and “Icy Fairy is really doing a special show?” and “Is it true? He’s coming back in action?” filled the area, giving the mages something to think and wonder about.

During the commotion, Sting turned to Gajeel in curiosity. “Hey, Gajeel-san, why isn’t Natsu-san participating too? Isn’t he good friends with Gray-san?” he asked almost innocently in the metal dragon slayer’s eyes.

“Pff, if they want, they do get along, but this isn’t the sort of thing the ice-block would call Salamander for.”

“Why not?”

“Tsk, go ask them directly. I don’t gossip” Gajeel muttered and practically dragged the white dragon slayer with him to where he saw Juvia’s love trail going.

“Speaking of Natsu, I haven’t seen him in a while” Panther Lily commented, still in the clutches of Milliana with Happy and Carla.

The handpicked group was already gathered on the way outside, talking cheerfully among them and obviously – not that any of them would admit, ever – trying to hide or control their nervousness.

“I remember seeing him and Lucy Heartfilia heading out a while ago. Actually, heading inside somewhere in the castle” Rufus said, thoughtfully.

“Not that it matters!” Gray called them to attention when the group was finally complete in his chosen space.

Because of the city population, the initial plan of having the stage right on the doors of the castle changed to having everyone at the large streets leading to the gates, successfully accommodating everyone and leaving enough space for the show. Wonder and anxiety grew among the public and could be easily felt by the performers. And still, the young artist looked so calm.

“If Flame Brain and Lucy want to miss out to fuck, let them. We’ve got work to do!”

The Fairy Tail members exchanged looks, the older ones worriedly. Gray may have said that professionally, but they could detect the emotions very well hidden in his eyes. And so could his surrogate big brother.

“Everyone remember well their places and roles, yes?” he confirmed, receiving many nods. “Good.”

“But what about our clothes?” Arania asked, for all she knew, people usually had a dress code or uniform when performing.

Gray tilted his head a little. “What? We are going to dance, not fight. Besides, you had the chance to change on the way here.”

At that, most people glared at him, while the Fairies laughed. “That’s Icy Fairy for you!”

“Do not worry. I am pretty sure everyone can work with what they have” Erza commented, exuding confidence, not that the others were comforted by it.

“Since everybody is ready, let’s start this show. Lyon, come on, you’re helping me create the stage.”

“What? Is a stage too much for you, Gray?” the older ice mage teased, walking with this fellow pupil to the center of the chosen area.

“Pff, as if. It’s more like I’m leaving the easy part to you. I have to create and control the instruments, remember?” the raven haired mage answered.

“Ice make: Stage!”

Together they chanted and soon a magnificent ice stage stood proudly in front of all eyes. The details were impressive. The wood texture of the floor was enough to stop anyone from slipping and the curtains of ice gave the area just that desire magical feeling when hit by light. At the back of the creation, many instruments were at the ready in their supports.

Working as a unit, the other mages took their positions and faced the amazed public. Gray, standing at the front in his full stage persona, addressed them with all the energy Fairy Tail and Icy Fairy were known for.

“People of Crocus and Fiori mages! Welcome to the ending show of tonight’s celebrations! Enjoy and have fun!”

Unexpectedly, he turned to Lyon and kicked him out, right into the front row of people.

Said ice mage gawked at the idol.

“You ungrateful little bastard! You just wait until this is over before I kick your ass!”

Doing a 180 on his personality, the younger ice mage pointed at Lyon and looked at him seriously. “You said yourself, when we were younger, that before long, you and Ur would be watching from the front rows as I debuted as a musician. Well, I debuted, you weren’t there and neither Ur nor Urtear are anywhere around. So it is your duty as my bastardly brother to shut up and stand right there, in the front row, for this unexpected comeback.” They locked gazes, a deep and full understanding passing between them in one single moment. Then Gray grinned cheeky. “Besides, the opening song is for and inspired by you and your finally-over-crush on Juvia anyway. You don’t know the choreography.”

And before anyone could say anything, the song started to play, a cheerful and catchy tune.

_What am I looking at?_  
Honestly you, yeah you, a total strange  
Why am I looking at you?  
I’m curious, my heart is fluttering, it’s unfamiliar  
Uh, pitter patter pitter, whoa!

_Babe! Patiently, shall we find out about each other?_  
Babe! Shall oppa start turning the handle slowly?  
It’s better not to know  
It’s best to go with your gut on a multiple choice, hot fire  
Your heart, my heart, pitter patter pitter, whoa!

_Person, a new person_  
I’m dizzy because my heart is fluttering so much  
Meeting, a new meeting  
I’m going crazy because my heart is fluttering so much

_An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance_  
Yes, I want some new face   
An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance  
Yes, I want some new face  
New face, new face, new new new face  
New face, new face, new new new face

_Have you always been this kind of a person?_  
No way, look at this, you have to meet eyes, to meet eyes  
Are you making a move on me?  
Honestly yes, ah yes, oh yes  
Uh, pitter patter pitter, whoa!

_Babe! Let’s slowly see if we’re compatible or rice cakes_  
Babe! Shall I guess even if you don’t tell me?  
It’s bad to bottle, pop me open already  
I’m your beer bottle, your oomph!  
Your heart, my heart, pitter patter pitter, whoa!

_Person, a new person_  
I’m dizzy because my heart is fluttering so much  
Meeting, a new meeting  
I’m going crazy because my heart is fluttering so much

_An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance_  
Yes, I want some new face   
An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance  
Yes, I want some new face  
New face, new face, new new new face  
New face, new face, new new new face

_Hey, we want some new face_  
(Hey, we want some new face)  
Hey, we want some new face  
(Hey, we want some new face)  
Pitter patter pitter, whoa!

_An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance_  
Yes, I want some new face   
An unfamiliar, an unfamiliar woman’s unfamiliar fragrance  
Yes, I want some new face  
Yei yei yei yei, all right! New face  
Yei yei yei yei, all right! New face  
Pitter patter pitter, Whoa! New face

Overall, the show of twenty-four mages dancing in dress suits and ballroom gowns was very interesting, and as predicted by the singer, everything went perfectly.

The attire in a way was ignored and the dance proceed smoothly. After the first song, Icy Fairy extended a hand to Lyon and pulled him back up and they started the real show. Every one of the following songs were well known hits, not a single person didn’t know the lyrics of, creating a very energetic chorus. Vocals were shared between all participants with incredible ease. The show was a success.

Later in the night, an hour after the last note resonated and, as usual, the stage burst into countless snowflakes, Lyon decided to spend some quality time with his baby brother, and dragged the other with him to his room. Loke tagged along because he literally had nothing better to do and he felt like the older man also wanted to talk to him.

The trio settled comfortably in the room, quickly – a little too quickly – stripping down from their clothes down to shorts or boxers and heaving sighs of comfort, laying down in a half heap on the double bed.

Lyon took in Gray’s form carefully. He was in a good tired state, a subtle smile on his lips from the show and energy. His wounds from the battle were mostly healed, thanks to the many good healers around, two little sky powered girls in special. He had his eyes closed, relaxed, but he had seen the glint of emotion when Rufus mentioned Natsu and Lucy’s escapade. He wondered what was going on between them.

It was no secret that Salamander was smitten by the celestial mage and vice versa. He remembers ever since Galuna Island how they were all pretty close and Natsu has always been protective of his friends, but at that time there was something different in their interaction. Lucy clearly had a crush on the dragon slayer since back then, that much was obvious. Said fire mage, though, was different, and so was Gray.

He doesn’t deny being crazy back then, judgment clouded by revenge and ambition, but even he saw the two males were close, as in they had something more than friendship going on. Natsu was borderline overprotective of Gray and the ice mage relied on him in ways he never did with Lyon (or at least until the Oracion Seis joint mission), and if he knew something about Gray it was that it took a lot for that to happen. There was just no way the Lamia mage didn’t see the longing and loving way Gray looked at the pink haired boy. It was also impossible for him to ignore the way Natsu stole subconscious glances at Lucy with clear instinctual intentions.

There wasn’t time then, and he was preoccupied by other things, so he didn’t address the matter, but now he could. And now the matter had escalated into a full blown out headache.

On the other hand, also present here in his room, was a figure he came to pay close attention to for the past three days. Loke, the Lion constellation Celestial Spirit, wasn’t just Gray’s friend.

The pair acted in a perfectly platonic way, same with the other two best friends of Gray’s from his guild, Kana and Erza. That didn’t mean Loke suppressed all his desires towards the younger male. The way he looked at him with longing, the undertone of deep caring and touches that lasted a bit too long did not go unnoticed. And yet…

And yet, Natsu was _obviously_ with Lucy, Gray _obviously_ hurt because of it and Loke _obviously_ wanted to be with Gray.

“What exactly is the deal between Natsu, Lucy and you two?”

Lyon decided to be blunt. They were all guys and that delicate approach wasn’t any of their styles anyway.

Understandably, the other two turned to look at him in surprise and confusion. They had a little staring contest until Gray sighed and tuned his eyes towards the ceiling.

“What about us?”

Lyon quirked an eyebrow. “What’s with all the UST between you?”

Loke and Gray snorted at the choice of words and exchanged a look. Gray answered him.

“Natsu and Lucy are fucking. Nine… Sixteen years ago Natsu promised we’d marry – or mate, was the word he used. And Loke is in love with me and we are best friends. That’s all.”

Lyon stared.

_Seriously?!_

“Are you fucking with me?”

“No, that would be incest.”

“Gray.”

Sigh.

The younger mage rose on his elbows and looked directly at his surrogate big brother.

“What do you want me to tell you? That I’m in love with an idiotic flame brain, though he doesn’t deserve it, especially after trading me for a girl two times without even clearing things between us, and that I should move on, and even if I know Loke is a much better guy I can’t be with him because I’m still pinning after that stupid fire breath, and I don’t care at all about his status as Celestial Spirit, that we could make a relationship between us work and it would be much better for my health and mental state.”

_What?_

“Okay, rewind. What was that about him trading you for a girl two times without clearing things between you?”

Gray sighed heavily and Loke put a hand on his shoulder, making the raven haired man lay down on his stomach. He answered the older mage.

“I wasn’t there when this mess began, but I know enough of it.”

The lion spirit told their third party about Natsu and Lisanna, about the silent support from him and the girls, about the two years of bittersweet relationship and about the arrival of Lucy and the downfall of said relationship. All the while, Lyon kept silent, casting glances at the younger mage in worry. Gray got comfortable on his friend and closed his eyes, listening to him retell his tragic romantic history and feeling the angst all over again. Either life was really unfair or he was just too stupid to do the right thing for once. Possibly both.

After Loke finished his tale, he looked down at the young man on him, his fingers gently cradling dark silky tresses. He wouldn’t ever deny his attraction to Gray, his lovesick sighs and how much we wanted to protect his very sensitive and very hurt heart.

The older ice mage saw that, the look of pure devotion on the blonde’s eyes. He pursed his lips and bopped his little brother on the head, making him look at him to yell at his face. Instead, Gray was faced with a very serious big brother stare.

“I heard from your lips, earlier this night, you telling Juvia you were going to be sincere with yourself and say the absolute no to things you didn’t like. What about this?”

Gray stared back at him and frowned. “It’s not that easy, you know.”

“I get you still like Salamander, and these sentimental things are confusing to deal with. But come on, the guy is a jerk, and I’m not saying that just because I clash with him. He really is too stupid to realize he had the best thing in his life and took it for granted. Now, you care for your friends and want them to be happy, right? They seem pretty happy together for me, and I’m no expert, but I really think you should just let those two enjoy themselves and get yourself a real man, or whatever. There’s one right here who’s been by your side through all this and for all I know loves you unconditionally, and I’m not talking about myself.”

“I know that, damn it! It just makes thing all the worse!”

“Tsk. You really are my stupid little brother. What will it take you to get over him? Dying again?”

The two ice mages stiffened at the mention of that and averted their eyes. Through the whole tirade, the spirit watched in amazement the interaction. It was almost like the older male gave him his blessings. Then there was that last comment. What was that about “dying again”?

“What do you mean ‘dying again’?” he narrowed his eyes, looking from one ice mage to the other, disliking the heavy tension that suddenly fell on them.

None of them wanted to answer. That was something that none of the people involved talked about once it happened, not understanding a thing about it, but the feeling it had invoked in them was all too raw. Under Loke’s growing glare, Gray had no chance but to give in. Lyon did have a point: Loke had been there for him since they met each other and asked for nothing in return, just his company and friendship.

He told the blonde about the event, that strange one minute they glimpsed of a possible future in which he died, pierced by too many laser beams to be savable. It had been a very painful and instant death. Not funny and not something he wanted to experience again.

Loke was stunned. He could’ve lost Gray forever and he wouldn’t know about it until much later. He couldn’t take it. On their own accord, his arms embraced the younger mage’s waist and pulled him to his chest, pressing Gray’s face against his collarbone and his own nose in his hair, enabling him to breath in his very unique scent that reminded him of the best of winter and comforted him of his presence and life.

“When were you going to tell me about it?”

Gray was in a way used to Loke’s affectionate displays, but this time it took him by surprise. This was unusual. Usually the Spirit held back his emotions, this time he felt it all raw, too strongly.

“I wasn’t” he muttered, his arms coming to hug the other back on instinct.

“Who else knows about it?”

“Melody and Juvia were with us when it happened” Lyon answered and placed himself at the raven’s back, knowing they weren’t going to change positions until morning.

“Never again, Gray, will you hide something like this from me” Loke growled, the vibrations from his throat travelling down his torso. “I don’t care if it’s a concussion, near limb amputation or loss of memory, you are to come and tell me!”

For a moment, the younger man didn’t respond, stunned by the protective display, but then he smiled and shamelessly cuddled with his best friend. Who knows, maybe he would be able to move on from Natsu if Loke was willing to wait enough for him.

Lyon rasped his knuckle on his kohai’s head and draped an arm around his waist, muttering “Stupid” before falling silent with the other two. Really, for all Gray was a music genius and soft hearted, he could be very stupid.

**X792 – Magnolia**

Choose a mission. Tell the team. Clear the request. Return home. Rest for a few days. Choose another mission.

That had become Lyon’s routine after the funeral seven months ago. Later that day, after Kana and Erza had finished some business in the House and the males finished their cleaning in the male dormitories of Fairy Tail, he met with them all at a local bar – not Fairy Tail, they were not ready to go back to their guildhall with a crucial piece of it missing – and they all drank and talked and drank some more.

That night, the silver haired ice mage got to know the extent of the relationship those people had with his brother.  They had become new brothers and sisters of Gray’s in his absence and he couldn’t be happier they were there for the raven, for if left alone, Gray would have lost himself in his thoughts. Heavens know that boy had a perchance of thinking the best of people and the worst of himself. Which was quite funny considering how competitive he was.

Since then, he made it a habit to visit Magnolia and their resident guild anytime his jobs took him anywhere near the city. Every time he did, out of everyone in his team, Cheria would be the happiest and most vocal about it. The ice mage wasn’t surprised by it, considering Cheria and Wendy struck a strong friendship quickly during the Magic Games. And seeing their youngest member so happy always lifted any tension and gloom from the group.

It was in the last of those visits, Lyon was met with an interesting sight.

He had told his teammates to go ahead and go to Fairy Tail’s guildhall while he made his stop by the cemetery as usual. With silent understanding and support, the other Lamia Scale mages continued on their way as their leader made his detour. Going through the now familiar path to the dark snowflake shaped stone, he expected it to be deserted like always. It wasn’t.

“Loke?”

Two people were there, right in front of the tomb he was going to visit. One of them he recognized with ease, the Lion Spirit wasn’t hard to distinguish with his strawberry blond mane and suit, even though it was pristine white, contrary to his usual formal black. The other one sent a pang to the ice mage’s heart. He wasn’t sure if it was a man or woman, but the features, or what he could see of them, were painfully familiar. There was a mess of raven locks, pale skin only found in the people from the north countries and a subtle cold air around this person, easily picked up on by the people that knew how to look for that, and Lyon knew how to look out for it.

The ginger haired male turned to him from his position behind his crouching companion and arched an eyebrow at him, surprised.

“Lyon? I didn’t expect to see you here” Loke said as a way of greeting.

Yeah, they weren’t the best of buddies but at the same time they had a sort of understanding relationship that dismissed the common greeting.

Lyon approached the pair, stopping a few feet away and shrugged. “I am on my way back from a mission. The rest of the team went ahead to your guildhall… Um, is that still right to say?” he asked the last bit a little awkwardly, remembering what Kana told him in a visit a few months ago that someone took all of Lucy’s Golden Keys from her, and that included the lion spirit.

Understanding what the other meant, Loke grinned. “Yeah, that is still right. I am still a proud member of Fairy Tail, even not being under Lucy’s command. Not that would influence much anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

As answer, the blonde nodded to his companion and Lyon looked, really looked at them. At his current distance, now he could see the face he previously couldn’t. And it was the experience from dealing with Fairy Tail’s level of nonsense that kept him from having a stroke.

The other person had Gray’s face, some lines, like the bridge of the nose and jawbone, were softer but nothing drastic. Everything was the same as he knew. The person’s eyes were transfixed on the engravings of the stone and slim pale fingers traced the words of the bottom line, a wistful light in the dark blue eyes.

“I’m sorry” she – Lyon concluded from the pitch of the voice – said softly. The woman stood up in a fluid and calm movement and turned to the man. “I hurt you… possibly not for the first time either.”

Lyon looked at her perplexed, trying to figure exactly what this female Gray lookalike was trying to tell him. He thought about all the people he had ever met with features remotely similar to this person’s and came short of the very brother he was trying to avoid thinking of right now, because if he did, a spark of hope would alight in his heart and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with is right now.

His own black eyes locked into the other’s dark midnight blue and for a long minute, they didn’t exchange a word. On the sideline, Loke patiently waited for the conclusions this man will come to.

In the dark irises looking back at him, Lyon found something he had been missing a long time, ever since he was a nine year old brat, actually. It was a special glint of innocence and great dreams, even if when he first saw it, it was already covered by darkness of loss and revenge.

“You are really Gray, aren’t you?” he asked almost hesitantly.

The woman smiled sadly at him. “I am, and I don’t remember you” she told him, regretful.

Lyon would like to say he was prepared for the worst to happen, but he had already experienced it twice, three times depending on how one count the events, but he didn’t know if his current situation was better or worse than the worst he had gone through before. He couldn’t say if meeting Gray without any memory of him was worse than living his life without the other male or not. Although he supposed it wasn’t that bad, after all, there could always be a way to get his brother’s memory back, and if that proved to be impossible, all he needed to do was create new memories between them.

So, he smirked, though it was halfhearted. “Too bad for you. You don’t remember the awesome person I am.”

Loke grinned at the ice mage’s response and watched as a playful smirk blossomed on his companion’s face. “Awesome? Are you sure? Because as far as I can see, I could wipe the floor with you in two seconds flat.”

“Oh yeah? Let’s see it then!”

“You know,” the blonde intervened before any fight could break out, “I doubt there is a single person out there capable of giving you a real struggle on a fight anymore, Gray.” He turned to Lyon, “Seriously, I think she has enough power to freeze a whole city in seconds without breaking a sweat. I’d rather avoid that happening if possible.”

“You are biased, Loke” the ice mage stated bluntly.

“He also stated a fact” Gray shrugged, making the man look at her skeptically. Her blank face eventually made him back down from this argument, considering he couldn’t feel the full extent of her magic power, and the only people he knew to be able to do that that weren’t non mages were the really powerful godlike ones.

“So, care to explain what the fuck happened from when you apparently died to how you are now a girl?”

Gray and Loke shared a look before answering the other. “Why don’t we move to somewhere more comfortable to talk about this?”

“Sure, but before that, what do you want to do with that?” the white haired mage nodded to the tombstone. In a way, the stone didn’t serve it purpose anymore, since the person it was supposed to represent was still alive and kicking.

“Leave it” the raven haired said simply. “For all I care, the Gray Fullbuster it represents is truly dead. I don’t think that even if I get my memories back I’ll ever be able to be him again.”

The trio moved to a small café and between the two Fairy Tail mages, the situation was as explained as possible along with any questions their friend had. In the end, Lyon had a worse time swallowing the fact his baby brother was now overly powerful than that he was now female. Well, that proved as another argument for the lion spirit that these guys training in a blizzard almost naked really did mess with their brains and their priorities.

After a while, the man asked the pair if they were going back to Fairy Tail, taking in account the new status quo of Gray herself and how Loke parted with Lucy, though it wasn’t his choice, not that he was complaining.

“That was the objective when we came here” she told him. “Leo took me to the cemetery so I understood where the guild stood concerning my existence. I’d say it was a stroke of lucky we got to meet you before going over there.”

“And why is that?”

“Because you knew me before Fairy Tail, right? So any discrepancies between my personality now and the one they know can be better explained by a third authentic party.”

“Only one problem: the current you has the personality before Deliora, and when we met you were already different, and grumpy as hell” Lyon stated in a deadpan.

“Still, you can attest to Gray’s identity, considering you recognized her in one look” Loke pointed and received nods of agreement.

They wrapped the topic up and decided it was time to face the chaos that was sure to ensure once the trio stepped one foot into the guild. On the way there, a very calm and unrushed walk, the older ice mage asked how the other two met if Gray didn’t remember the male Spirit. The answer was a simplified version of the events leading to their current situation and it gave the man an idea.

“If you remember some glimpses of your relationship, what are the chances you’ll get your memory back of me if we spend time together?”

“Chances are high, but at the same time things are very unpredictable” the raven haired mage said. “I got my memories from the beginning of my life by having my father’s magic literally run through me. Leo was actually a surprise, but I believe him being essentially a begin of magic and not a mortal had something to do with it. You, on the other hand, are a human and even if you played an important part in my life, it is still a luck guess how I’ll remember you completely.”

Lyon hummed in thought. It made sense in a way. All the same, he wasn’t complaining about the predicament he found himself in. As stated before, having Gray back was enough of a miracle, anything else would simply be a bonus.

Giving a side glance at his companions, the white haired man couldn’t help but think things were finally starting to get better for his surrogate sibling. As far as he knew, the Gray before Fairy Tail was definitely more stubborn on his feelings than the Gray after Fairy Tail, so chances were high once back, the catastrophic relationship between Gray and Natsu was not going to be the way it was, more so with Salamander’s official romance with Heartfilia. Also, Loke being Gray’s now and her anchor in a matter would certainly help push their relationship towards what it should’ve been long ago. Oh, damn, he was turning soft. Lyon was spending too much time with Sherly, he decided.

On a personally hilarious note, the ice mage came to one conclusion: the “new” personality, new power and new face were sure to bring a new life. Gray may have produced that song for him as a joke, but he would make sure to tease her about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you so much for the time and attention.
> 
> Don't forget to comment and leave me with your thoughts, it helps all authors to improve their writing and it is certainly a great support for us.
> 
> .AUehara


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